The Hunters: Remnants Mightiest Heroes
by th3g1ng3rn1nja
Summary: There was an idea, to bring together a group of remarkable people, so that when we needed them, they could fight the battles, that we never could. That day has come, and it is unlike any other. Remnant needs something more than just the agents of BEACON, they need heroes... Avengers AU follow up to Good in to Great, but can be read separate.
1. NOPE

The Hunters: Remnants Mightiest Heroes

In the words of Nikki from Camp Camp: I'MMM BAAACCCCKKKK!. Hopefully you guys wanted more and I wanted to do more so this is a win win for everyone, this is a follow up to Good In to Great, but it can be read separately if you don't want to read another Jaune fic. If you do want to read it be my guest as I think it's pretty good and I want to say thanks for all the support and favourites and follows and reviews. Didn't think it was going to have about three hundred people view it in an the space of two hours, that was great.

To any Marvel fans you might recognise the story I am loosely trying to follow, as the title is a bit of a give away. It is in my opinion the best Avengers cartoon ever and possibly the best Marvel cartoon ever, followed by The Spectacular Spider-Man. For those of you who don't know what I am talking about it is called Avengers: Earths Mightiest Heroes, worth a watch.

(Just another random Headcannon that popped into my head; the only person that managed to beat Nora in an arm wrestling contest in Beacon wasn't Yang like many thought, It wasn't Pyrrha who said that Nora pulled a lot of her muscles, causing Jaune to worry about her enough to massage her almost every day after that so much not that she minded, and it wasn't Ren since Nora couldn't do that to his arm, in fact it wasn't any one in the first year and nobody real wanted to try as Nora actually did break Cardin's arm. It wasn't Yatsuhashi, so many people lost Lien on that bet, it wasn't Coco... it was Velvet. Nora didn't leave her room for the next few days after that, not that she minded as Ren would bring her pancakes to make her feel better.)

Disclaimer; I own nothing.

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Chapter one: NOPE

In terms of the weather it was a very gorgeous day; the shine was shining down, glistening through the trees casting pure beams of bright light where the leaves broke apart. The flowers were soaking up the sun that could come through at these points, and filling the air around them with a pleasant aroma of sunflowers, daisies and bluebells. There was even a lake nearby that hosted a whole variety of different wildlife that was living peacefully, the ducks were paddling around in the lake and some were waddling around on the shore, there were some dragonflies that were flying around creating a gentle buzzing noise that filled the air along with a calm breeze; generating a soft swishing sound that made the whole environment in the south of Mistral seem like a place of pure serenity and making it akin to a garden of Heaven. However in other areas the day could be considered to be a bad one.

"SHIT." Cried out a white fang thug, just as he dropped a heavy box filled with weapons on to the ground, directly in-front of a group of bandits.

"Why the hell couldn't the Mechs carry this crap?" He muttered as he slowly backed away from the bandit leader. He was a Shady Looking Guy who was missing one of his front teeth and looked like the typical man you would tell your kids not to talk to. The two groups of people faced off against each other; the white fang had five members and they were all wearing the traditional white fang uniform and who were carrying automatic rifles, straight off the Atlas line, and two members who were in the advanced Mech suits capable of lifting a car, their leader was a young woman who wielded an extendable whip sword and like all of the members of the white fang was a faunus, specifically a chameleon.

The bandits were dressed a little differently, there were seven of them in total and they didn't have a specific uniform between them so they just had on whatever they had managed to scrounge together, this left them looking less than professional compared to the uniformed members of the white fang. They also carried make-shift swords that they had managed to make and guns with various attachments on them that could not be safe. This was the whole reason that they were meeting together in the woods like this, the bandits required weapons and they were willing to pay quite a lot for the weapons, and that was money that the white fang could use, it's not like they were lacking in money as their leader was also the leader of a country, but they would never say no to more money and the chance to expand their connections to the other people in the world.

The leader of this group of bandits stepped forward to the crate that the white fang member had deposited in-front of them and flipped the lid open and pulled out one of the guns, it was a high tech rife with an advanced scope and special ammunition capable of drilling into amour and releasing a small compact explosion, not enough to take out a group of enemies, but it would take down anybody who was wearing amour vests or helmets. The bandit gave the gun a few test fires towards one of the trees and once he had imbedded ten bullets into the trunk of the tree, he flipped the switch on the side of the gun and detonates the explosives and blows the tree trunk up, completely shattering the bark and causing the tree to fall, with a satisfying creaking and crashing; thus destroying the silence that once was held in the tranquil area.

"TIMBER AHAHAHAH!" Yelled the Shady Looking Guy, as he was laughing out in glee at the carnage he was causing. The rest of the bandits move to step forward and they all pick up a rifle each inspecting it and almost preparing to fire as the leader places his down and hands over the money, to the faunus woman.

"Here you go babe, it's all there and if we ever do meet again; I hope that there will be more pleasure than business." He said as he waggled his eye brows at here.

"I sincerely hope that we don't." replied the woman curtly, accepting the money and walking back over to her group preparing to leave, before the bandits get them found by all of the shooting they are doing.

Just as she almost made it back to her group, her faunus senses picked up on seven small objects impacting the guns that she had just supplied to the bandits, this small noise caused her to turn around and take up a defensive stance and dart her eyes all over the sky, but she was unprepared for the scene that she then saw; what looked to be a comet was flying towards their meeting point at an incredible speed, unmatched by anything that she had ever seen before, surpassing the fastest aircraft that she had seen when they robbed that last military convoy leaving the base in Mistral. It smacked into the ground directly between the two meeting groups sending up a massive cloud of dust that obscured the line of sight between the two groups, this probably would have been good incentive to run right now, but everyone's eyes were locked on the object that was creating a dark silhouette, and when the dust settled it was seen that the object had actually created a marginally large crater. The object was then revealed to be a person, it was a short person and judging from the shape of the body it was defiantly a woman, but she was clad completely in bright red amour; not the amour of a knight, but an incredibly high tech amour that was whirling as she stood up and turned her head side to side to view all of her spectators and the helmet on her head gave her eyes a glowing silver eyed appearance that unnerved the faunus woman and her white fang members all growled slightly in defence. The woman stepped out of the crater, and her red cape fluttered in the breeze slightly, truly enrapturing the look of a hero, her amour also made a very pronounced sound of powering up, and this caused her chest piece to turn an even brighter shade of silver and her hands glowed silver as well.

"I don't know who you are, little lady, but you messed with the wrong crowd!" Said the Shady Looking Guy, as all seven of the bandits raised their weapons at the new-comer and took aim with their weapons. The woman just stared at the bandits and watched them not saying anything for a moment before she held up her hand.

"Did you not here me? I said you have messed with the wrong crowd, you should get out of here while you can." The Shady Looking Guy warned the woman, unaware of the person that he was facing.

"Wait." Came the woman's voice, sounding very young and slightly higher than she thought it would. It also came out as slightly robotic, most likely due to the technology of her amour. "Are you trying to shoot me?" She questioned, rather innocently for a question like that one.

"Uh, yeah!"

"Ohhhhh, please continue."

"SHOOT HER!" Cried the Shady Looking Guy as all of the bandits pulled back the trigger all expecting the same thing to happen; the woman's amour was going to get riddled with bullets and then as they activated the small explosives she would get blown to high hell, they clearly had no idea who they were dealing with. Luckily woman knew exactly who she was up against: idiots. As they all pulled the triggers of their weapons nothing happened, and then they began to grow irate slapping the guns to figure out what was happening, this is when the small devices that this woman had presumably shot from a great distance away to attach on to the rifles activated and set an electric shock through the people who were holding the guns, causing them all to yell, groan and scream out in pain as they then collapsed to the ground; that left the leader standing their amongst all of his unconscious bandit buddies, looking even more dumbstruck than he usually looked; most likely a very difficult feat for him to accomplish.

"Uh any way we can talk about-?" he tried to ask before the woman's still raised arm glowed even brighter and a bolt of pure silver energy left her palm and slammed into the Shaddy Looking Guy, knocking him back a few feet into a tree, and he groaned out in pain as he slide down its trunk.

"NOPE." Said the mysterious woman in a sweet voice, as she was clearly very pleased with her work, and enjoyed her time spent schooling idiots. She then turned her attention to the group of white fang grunts and its leader who held a retractable whip sword out in-front of her, poised and ready for attack. The red armoured woman rolled her shoulders slightly and two compartments popped out of her back and then went over her shoulders and fired two tiny little bullet like projectiles at the two Mechs stood behind the foot soldiers. They connected with the amour with a quiet little clang and this cause the pilots of the Mechs to chuckle slightly as they knew that this amour was made for heavy duty lifting and was tough enough to survive a bullet or three-hundred. That was when an electrical shock went over their Mechs and they started to beep in a way that suggested they were going to com-bust, so the pilots quickly ejected from the Mechs and ran away just as they exploded.

The white fang members stood deathly still as they knew they could not likely beat this new comer in a fight, they had seen what she had been able to do to a group of people with high tech guns able to shread and tear up amour, and what she could do against Mechs that were almost strong enough to throw a bus. They had also heard the stories of this womans escapade's in Vale, Atlas and Vacuo, and they knew that she was a literal one-woman-army, as she demolished a terrorist group in the desert and had reduced the amount of gun running that happened around Atlas by a staggering amount. But none the less, they would follow whatever order their leader gave them as they were nothing if not loyal.

"Do you know who I am?" the armoured avenger asked their leader. Ilia swallowed hard before answering, as she did not want to look weak in-front of her troops, even if all of their combined instincts screamed at them to run.

"You are the Armoured Avenger, the Machine Knight, the one-woman-army; The Iron Reaper."

"Yeah I don't know why they say Iron when it's actually a titanium-gold alloy, but that's not important, what is, is this; those were my guns, not yours. And I am getting rid of every weapon my company has produced, I don't care who I have to go through, even if it's your boss." She said passionately standing right in-front of Ilia so that they were almost nose to nose.

Now Ilia was a smart woman and she knew when she was out match, and right now she was about to go up against a tsunami in a canoe. So she did the smart thing and she walked away and just as her troopers were about to walk away the Iron Reaper called out to them before they disappeared into the forest.

"Just letting you know I got the whole thing on camera, so can you please tell that your leader. PLEASE AND THANK YOU!" She cried out and added a little wave to the departing white fang members. She knew that venturing an arrest order for citizens of the nation of Fort Castle (heh, funny name) would result in a massive legal battle but she could still threaten them.

Smiling to herself, Ruby turned to the peacefully sleeping bandits that she had taken-down. She didn't know what tribe they came from or how they managed to arrange the meeting with the white fang, but that was the job of others to find out. Ruby only had one job to do; destroy what she had created. Ever since she had started constructing weapons in her company, she had felt a little bit guilty, however the money that came with it allowed her to donate to hospitals, homeless shelters and orphanages to name a few, It allowed her company to expand to multiple location creating numerous job offers for thousands of people all over Remnant. So she thought what's the harm in something is like that for the right reasons and all of the good it does.

Turns out there were a very big harm in creating weapons; it attracts the wrong crowd. While she was on a weapon test in the Vacuo desert, demonstrating the ability of her new fire-and-forget rocket able to lock on to multiple targets and take them out in quick succession; called the Full Moon. Her convoy of troops transporting her back to the airfield was ambushed by terrorists known as the Grimm, they killed all of the troops and captured her and took her to an under-ground cave where they had her work on developing weapons for them. They had also been stockpiling dozens of her weapons over the years and using them to kill people who settled near their base and did not seek to join the Grimm.

That was the moment that Ruby Rose decided no more. She was getting out of the weapon business and making sure that every single one of her guns in enemy hands was turned to scrap. She was quite possible the smartest person on Remnant so she was well aware that her technology was decades ahead of whatever the scientist in Atlas could come up with, so she had no doubt about her work being replicated.

First thing though; she needed to get out of this cave, and unfortunately to destroy the weapons she had now grown to hate she would need to make one last weapon, the one that would end it all for her and at the same time provide her with salvation. Unfortunately during the attack she had been struck by a shrapnel missile that had embedded several tiny metal shards in her heart that had gotten quite close to killing her had she not been saved by a doctor Polendina, who attached a magnet in the centre of her chest that pulled the shrapnel away from the ventricle of her heart. That was when she designed the first renewable source of energy in the world; she liked to call it Silver eyed power as it glowed the same colour as her eyes, even though she tried so hard to make it blue as that would have been cooler. During the escape doctor Polendina had unfortunately been shot through the heart the last words that he said to Ruby have stuck with her every single day for a whole year now.

"Don't waste your life."

And Ruby was certain that she hadn't, the moment that she had escaped she announced she was pulling out of the weapons business, the militarise would need to return all of her models so they could be turned in to scrap metal and they could start on numerous new projects for the better meant of human and faunus kind, instead of causing death. She spoke about a renewable source of clean energy instead of dust as it was a finite resource and they needed to work on alternatives if they wanted to make it to another century. She talked about the efforts to repair the relationship between the humans and the faunus, as they were supposed to be together to make this planet a home for all to live in. Ruby was aware that she had a lot to say and that most things were often easier said than done, but they really need to start working on solutions to this problem, or the next war that everyone seemed so keen to fight would be fought with sticks and stones, between the dominant species of bugs that would take over the planet from them. Maybe that was being a tad to melodramatic, but it got the point across and everyone had listened to her and she was happy to say that her demands for the recall of her weapons was met with minimal resistance; sometimes convoy's from Atlas and sometimes Vale, lost their weapons, but Ruby usually found them sitting in a warehouse that she then proceeded to blow apart, destroying her weapons and creating more housing for the homeless and space to add in extra buildings for schools.

She especially loved the look on everyone's faces when she had turned up to a meeting in her new amour made especially for destroying all of her weapons and combat against foes who were resistant to her orders. She had of course been labelled a hypocrite and a liar, but she made a promise that the moment she had assurance all of her weapons were destroyed or back in her hands then she would turn her amour into scrap, she even signed an agreement with one of the few people she trusted enough, Director Ozpin, the head of BEACON the first line of defence for Remnant, that seemed to help calm the populace down.

Speaking of BEACON, the bullhead that Ruby had Penny contact had now arrived and was slowly landing on the ground and then a familiar handsome man walk out of the side of the bullhead with several agents following behind him, the man in question had long dark hair a slim build and was a little bit taller than she was, he had an eastern Mistral look and wore a similar outfit that allowed him a full range of movement. By his side were two small semi-automatic pistols with a retractable blade on each; on his back were a quiver and a collapsible bow for longer range. This was Agent Ren, Ruby was pretty sure his first name was Agent as that was what he introduced himself as.

"Miss Rose." He said in greeting and bowed to show her respect. "Thank you for your assistance with the bandits, they had been a blight on the nearby village for a couple of weeks now."

"Noooo problem." She replied with a thumb's up and just as she turned to take off in to the air Agent Ren spoke again.

"Miss Rose the hard drive please." Oh yeah she did just record the encounter to make sure the bandits were locked up for the appropriate time.

"Thank you. Also Director Ozpin wishes to talk to you back at BEACON if you are not too busy."

"Nah I'll stop by, he better have my cookies ready. Latter Ren." And then Ruby rocketed away at about a hundred miles an hour, faster than anything avian that could take off, and Ren would know he had been in contact with a decorated and very popular combat pilot, who was a winner of multiple competitions, for reasons that he knew of they hadn't been in contact for a while, and he knew that the information of her where a bouts was meant to be top secret, but it was his profession to know.

Now that that was over with he helped the other agents transport the prisoners to the bullhead and lock them down with the new handcuffs that were developed and then given to BEACON be STRQ industry's at a lot lower cost than they were given to the Atlas military, but nobody would say that out loud.

The journey to the prison was surprisingly uneventful and all Ren did was perform maintenance on his arrows and on his pistols to keep him busy and make sure that his equipment was in the best possible condition, when they arrived at the Emerald Forest prison he noticed that one of the prisoners gulped slightly, evidently he had heard of this place and their very dangerous inhabitants. In the world of Remnant there were two different places known as the Emerald Forest, one lived up to the name and was a lush haven for wildlife and the perfect place to go camping and spend a day out doors if you were in to that life. And then there was this Emerald Forest, a place where the most dangerous murders and terrorists were sent to live out their sentences, a place where people with enhanced abilities were sent if they chose to use them against the population, they were not experimented on they were simply locked up, Director Ozpin was very strict on that and his second in command was also incredibly strict on that as well, and she had the added effect of being terrifying to the people around the BEACON agency. As they walked the prisoners to their temporary cell before they could be tried and then given a proper home here, Ren was interrupted by a seductive drawl.

"Aww the handsome spy has come back to me, so sweet." Ren paused his walk and turned towards the cell and looked the woman directly in the eyes. One of the prisoners looked where he was looking and the moment he laid eyes on the woman he paled, not many people knew who she was, but those who did were terrified of her as they heard how she came to be locked up here, but Ren wasn't terrified of her, he was still smart enough to know that if she ever got out then they would have a problem on their hands as she was very smart, but Ren knew that with all his combat training and his expert marksmanship apprehending her would not be to difficult.

"Sorry you're not my type." Replied Ren in his monotone voice

"Bit too much woman for you?" she asked in sultry voice almost batting her eyes at him, and Ren might have been flattered as there was no denying it she was a very pretty woman, but he was not attracted to her in anyway.

"Too little actually." Sated Ren his eyes glaring right through her own as the dangerous woman let out a sarcastically surprised gasp

"ohhh, like them big do you, little man?" this conversation was going nowhere, Ren had realised before that this woman was very dangerously unhinged, and it always pained him to talk to those with an altered mental state as he had no idea how to help them control their emotions.

"No I prefer them to have a more sound mind." He said before walking away and hearing the woman laugh manically, her body shaking and the crackling sound filling the prison up with her noise, and if possible causing Ren to become even warier of her and feel even more pity for her.

Outside of the prison Ruby was waiting outside near the statue of the war that took place nearly sixty years ago, this statue was built for the hero of that war and was one of the two memorial's for all of the people who fought in the conflict, not just those that died. The main memorial was in the very centre of the city, right in the middle of the park, this one was just placed here to inspire those who wished to defend humanity as best as they could and remind them of the ultimate sacrifice they could give. Ruby gazed up at the statue sadly as it was one that her parents and aunt and uncle built together a long time ago in order to remember their good friend.

Ruby decided she was going to leave her amour right next to the statue as it was specifically coded to her DNA and required a code word to open and be activated. And she was certain that nobody was going to steal it as it was also primed in sentry mode and could be called to her on a button press and could also explode when a specific catch phrase was said. Leaving her amour there with its statue friend, she made her way to the main entrance and greeted the members of staff that was there as they asked her to remove her weapons and place them in a locker. When she told them she had left her amour outside they got a little bit strict and demanded that she had it over to her as it was protocol and they should be able to look after it, Ruby's saviour came, in the strangest form possible.

Deputy Director Agent Goodwitch.

This managed to get her all the way up the elevator riding with her saviour; any attempts to start a conversation had been silenced with the Deputy simply giving one word answers and glaring at her slightly when she made any movements as Ruby had the great urge to fiddle, in uncomfortable situations and this counted as the most uncomfortable situation that she had been in since she had been part of a love triangle between two people she had never met before, it turns out they were bandits and they had somehow found their way into that nightclub and then the next thing she knew it had burned down and then they had broken up with her, Ruby was actually so shocked that she didn't even try to follow them back to their camp to see if they had her weapons she was so embarrassed. When the elevator came to a stop the two inhabitants stepped out and walked forward to the empty desk, the sight of the empty desk confused Ruby as she was sure that the Director had scheduled this meeting so why wasn't he here?

Deputy Director Agent Goodwitch (she needed an abbreviation) gave him a call on his scroll telling him that they were waiting for her to turn up and that she might be forced to make a certain sacrifice with the budget this year if he wasn't here in the next five minutes. Two minutes later the Director walked out of the same elevator that they had just come up to get into his office and took a seat behind his desk and peered over the top of his glasses at Ruby, silently observing her before finally saying out loud.

"Agent Ren please come out of the ventilation and join us."

Ren dropped down from the ceiling.

"Perfect now that we are all here, I would like to first start off by saying thank you Miss Rose. Your companies help in the maintenance of this facility as well as the supply of equipment that we purchase off of you is most helpful, the new re-enforced cells in the prison are holding up a treat and the protection of the guards working there has gone up by a considerable degree due to the new restraints you have provided us with."

"Uh thanks. I might be out of the weapons business, but I am still all about protection." Said Ruby, as she rubbed the back of her neck and blushed at the complement.

"Speaking of protection, I was wondering if a deal of sorts could come between us. Not your company and BEACON, but you and me." Said Director Ozpin, choosing to be as cryptic as he could.

"What?"

"It is well known around Remnant that you are the Iron Reaper, and a few people think of your actions as heroic, but there are more who believe it to be purely selfish and that you are trying to become the most powerful force around." As Ruby opened her mouth to speak Director Ozpin held up his hand to stop her. "I know this to be false, but it couldn't help to get people to know the real you and see you doing well with others. That is why you are here Agent Ren; it is well known that you are quite possibly the most skilled Agent that BEACON has ever had, and I believe that skill could be put to better use, the two of you could go out into the world and help people."

Agent Ren made sure that he showed no emotion and kept in a 'poker face' as his colleagues would call it, but internally he was honestly flattered. To be considered for such an honour was incredible, his parents would be so proud if they could see him working to help people instead of just locking them away in a prison and occasionally putting stopping their schemes, but if he went out there and really help he could do their memory the proper justice it deserved. He might even be able to open up to more people as this could not possible stay as just himself and Miss Rose, so that would mean more exceptional people that he could call friends.

Ruby thought that the idea was great as well, the chance to help other people was something that she had not thought about when she had started her mission, she fully believed that the destruction of her weapons was the greatest way to help people, but the recent news had said that more and more attacks from the Grimm cult were growing, enhanced people were running all over the place, some were wreaking havoc, the faunus were being boxed in by humans and they would need to be helped out. It sounded like a good idea, and maybe it was the chance to make some friends along the way as that was something that she lacked in her life.

"The first thing that I wish to ask of you two is to talk to one of our new prisoners- not the bandits that you recovered for us Miss Rose- but someone different, they claim to come from a different planet altogether-"

"Sir?-" Ren tries to interrupt

"-Yes I know Agent Ren it does sound a little strange when said out loud, but I can assure you they are truly exceptional as they stopped a car head on with just one hand-"

"Mr Ozpin-" Ruby tried as she too had noticed the same thing as Ren and DDA Goodwitch had.

"-It's actually Director Ozpin Miss Rose, but it is a common mistake to make, now as I was saying; they appear to be very strong so we had to give them the strongest hand cuffs that we have in the facility, it was surprisingly easy to agree for them to come with us as-"

"-DIRECTOR OZPIN" Cried DDA Goodwitch; as she finally lost her patience with the man and his dismissal of the two before him, while she personally didn't think that the two of them forming a partnership or maybe a team down the line, was a very good idea. Having them interview a person they had detained bellow them was not something they should be doing for their first 'mission'.

Taken back by the force in his second in commands voice he turned his gaze over to her.

"Yes Glynda?" All she did was raise her hand and point to the window, gesturing for Director Ozpin to look out and see for himself. What he saw was the very same person that he had originally been interviewing down at the bottom of the tower before he had come up. Standing up from his desk Director Ozpin walked over and opened up the window, allowing their guest to float in and then skip across the room and place down her hammer in the centre of the room. She then turned around and let out a little squeal in excitement at seeing new people. The woman had shoulder length ginger hair and bright lively turquoise eyes that locked straight on to Ren and then Ruby and then Ren and then Ruby again and then back to Ren. She had a white shirt on with a cut out of a heart right on her chest with a diagonal strike going through it, on top of that was a blue jacket that had a pink hammer on the back, speaking of pink, her skirt went down to her knees, but was very frilly and very pink and she also had high white boots on. The outfit screamed out how loud the woman was, and she was practically bouncing on the spot and generating her own little energy field.

"HELLLLLLLOOOOOO! I'm Nora you've probably heard of me, you know the goddess of thunder, lady of the lightening and mistress of the sky. The princess of Valkyrie and soon to be the queen of the castle, not that my planet is a castle, it's a planet duh, but I live in a castle so I will be queen of that, and also the planet I guess and the nine realms, so no biggy, that technically makes me the queen of this planet but I don't want to be that queen soooooooooooo, I'll let you guys do your own thingy- speaking of thingy's I got bored waiting downstairs for you Mr O- so I decided to come and find you- I asked but they all just told me to go somewhere cold and then pointed at me and that's when it hit me ALTITUDE! The higher you get the colder it gets! That's why there is always snow on top of the tall hilly things what are they called agai-"

"Mountains." Supplied Ren not missing a beat and being able to keep up completely with Nora's rabbling, something which had managed to lose both the Director and the Deputy. Ruby meanwhile was staring at the hammer.

"Thank you Mr Handsome. That's probably not your name is it? But you are. Handsome that is, and I guess you are a Mr as well aren't you? Although with that very long hair you might be a girl, you could be a very pretty girl if you wanted to be or you could be a handsome boy, I don't mind. But i think your hair could use something more you know, it just looks a little to bland right now, once my brother decided to try and style my hair but he accidently made me and almost everyone else in the kingdom bold, Father was not happy with him seeing as my brother was the only guy to have hair. It was funny though." Said Nora again speaking at about a thousand times faster than she needed to speak, but Ren still heard her and understood everything she said; and found it sweet how she cared for her sibling and who they were choosing to be.

"I'm a boy. My name is Ren" Was all Ren had to say about that as Nora skipped forward to where Ren was now stood, since her arrival he had decided to stand, both in greeting a newcomer to the room and in shock that someone could fly with such a heavy looking hammer.

"I'm a girl, my name is Nora, boop." Said Nora as she poked him on the nose and smiled up at him with a big toothy grin, proud that she had made a friend.

"Miss Nora how did you get up here?" questioned the deputy, awestruck at this girl and preparing for the inevitable headache she would cause her, patience and paperwork wise.

"I flew!" she exclaimed happily still terribly cheerful, bouncing on her toes.

"You can fly?"

"Yeah I can! Can any of you guys fly? I know I am the only one of Valkyrie that can fly without a transport."

"I mean… technically I can fly." Said Ruby meekly as she raised her hand, and then Nora popped up in-front of her and poked her on the nose and said

"Boop." Two minutes in the realm of the mortals and she had made two new friends and all of the people on Valkyrie laughed when she said that she would be well loved and have a lot of friends on Remnant. They laughed really hard actually and for quite a while surprisingly, but Nora laughed with them for a bit as they were also her friends, weren't they?

"Ooh-ooh-ooh I can do this- so my hammer can only be picked up by those who are worthy-so far just me and dad-and it can help me expel lightening-watch!" she said as she grabbed her hammer and lifted it above her head very easily, and if Ren had any doubts about this woman being able to stop a car then they all went away as the hammer looked to weigh the same amount as a car and Nora lifted it as though it were bed sheets. Then both Nora and the hammer let off millions of sparks of electricity that went straight down the tower and hit the main reactor and power source for the BEACON facility causing all of the lights to burn out.

"Opps, that's never happened before…" said Nora

Just then a massive explosion was came from the south of the facility and the windows allowed them to see an extraordinary fireball shoot straight into the sky and then head right on its way to the city of Vale, right in the rush hour time. Then the power to the facility came back on the instant the fireball disappeared from view and Director Ozpin was already on the phone to the Emerald Forest.

"This is Director Ozpin report now and tell me what I just saw was a trick of the light."

"…"

"Damm it. Control the area and make sure nobody else escapes, lethal force is not authorised, I repeat NOT authorised. Glynda get down there and make sure they know what they are doing!" and then Glynda ran into the elevator and pressed the express button that should only be used in emergency's and checked over her weapon on the way down to the super max prison.

"As for you three. That thing with destroy everything in its path and it won't stop until does just that, so you need to stop it now, and you have no choice Miss Nora as you set it free." Said Director Ozpin firmly and Nora looked horrified for a second before steeling herself and grinning evily.

"I'll break it's legs, don't worry about it." She said as she grabbed Ren and flew out of the open window, causing Ren to have a mini heart attack; the first of many he thought. He was also slightly confused as he could count on one had the amount of people in the prison with enhanced abilities, but none of them could do anything like that, they either had a hypnotizing gaze, the ability to cling to any surface, enhanced strength or could bend their body in unnaturally ways. Nobody that Ren knew of could control fire like that.

"Miss Rose, this will be a fight unlike any other that you have ever encountered." But Ruby was already on the phone to someone who could defiantly lend a hand against this kind of person.

"Don't worry sir, team urhhhh… the team, yeah, is on it!" she said and then pressed a button on her summoning device and her amour rocketed up to the office and crashed right through one of the windows and landed in-front of her and opened up once it had scanned her. She then stepped inside and said the password required to confirm her identity to ensure that the amour would operate.

"Milk." And with that she started up her thrusters and blasted off after the marksman and the lightening lady as fast as she could, needless to say it didn't take her long to get there.

Right before Ruby even has a chance to call her amour Nora had left her and the grey haired guy in the office in the dust, if you thought that Ruby in her amour was fast then you didn't know how quickly Nora could go if she knew the chances of failing. She had also grabbed the handsome guy, Ren, and flown to where the fireball had landed. The man was right; it was her fault and she would do whatever it takes to end this fireball's short lived freedom and send it back where it came from. Currently it was quite easy to find the impact point of the fireball, as numerous mortals were running from the location, where a woman was shooting blasts of fire from her hands at anybody that tried to get close, it didn't look like anybody was hurt, but it was clear that they were just being toyed with as they were all firing their tiny little gun thingies at the woman, but the little arrows all looked to melt before they got to her, the woman was too hot. Now that Nora got a good look at her, she could see that she was in-fact a very pretty woman, with long dark hair, a curvaceous body and bright amber eyes. She immediately locked on to Ren and Nora as they arrived, the former flipping on to a car when Nora released him and the latter choosing to walk straight up to her while swinging her hammer side to side.

"HEELLLOOOOO, I'm Nora and I accept your surrender, which reminds me; that handsome man is my Ren, well not MY Ren, I mean he is good looking and I wouldn't say not, we only just met right? That would be-"

"Nora focus." Came Ren's calm voice, his eyes never leaving the woman as she watched on in amusement and curiosity at the new woman swinging such a large hammer with ease.

"SORRY REN." She called back and then turned back to the fire woman, who smiled at her.

"Little girl, you should leave while you can or I'll burn your pretty hair off." Said the woman menacingly.

"We don't even know your name and your already threatening us!" exclaimed Nora, a little shocked at how quickly the mortals did business around here, usually there was more talking before you got to the threats and some needless insults, but she skipped and went straight to the good stuff. Nora could get behind that.

"Her name is Cinder Fall; she was a respected dust scientist when she decided to go too far with her work and killed two hundred people at once in a massive explosion. When apprehended the first time all she did was smile and laugh at us." Explained Ren as the woman-now known as Cinder- shrugged innocently.

"Don't feel to put off, little man. I won't burn off your skin; I'll keep you around and see how long you last drinking molten lava." Cinder said sweetly and batting her eye lashes at Ren.

"But in the meantime, you might want to stop that fire; those poor people can't seem to get out." She said gesturing over to a building behind her that had caught on fire as if on cue. There did look to be a rather large group of people in the building and they all were on the roof and it was too far to reach the next one, but Nora could help them. That just meant Ren would have to hold Cinder off long enough for Ruby to get here and help out. He had no idea that she was able to manipulate or create such powerful blasts of fire and smoke, and he was Level Ten, able to view all the documents that BEACON had on everyone and everything, he wagered that he even knew things that DDA Goodwitch didn't, yet he had no clue about Cinder's abilities, but from the reaction of Director Ozpin; he did, and he had kept it from Ren for too long.

Taking as deep breath Ren leapt off of the car that he was stood on, into a sideways flip and peppered Cinder with bullets from his twin pistols; so happy that the BEACON staff knew him well enough to let him carry weapons at all times, otherwise Nora would have dragged him into battle and he would have had to make do with the environment.

Due to Cinder generating an extreme heat barrier, most of the bullets melted and the ones that made it to her skin did no damage to her at all, almost like she was made of steel. This meant that Ren would have to think smarter. Dodging a blast of fire by leap-frogging an upturned car Ren shot a few more bullets as he made his way to the side of the street that Nora was helping civilians on. Ren jumped on to of a food stand that was still functional and slowly took aim with one of his guns and fired the other one randomly all around Cinder while shooting two very specific bullets at the his targets, causing the cars around her to explode sealing her in a tornado of fire. Ren then holstered his pistols and drew his bow and readied three arrows. The tornado vanished and turned in to a long beam of fire aimed straight at the food stand that Ren was on; this caused him to dive off the stand and roll into a crouched position and take aim at Cinder with his three arrows and the moment they locked eyes Ren released the arrows letting them fly… with two going over Cinder completely missing her by several meters and the third landing at her feet and stabbing into the ground making her lock eyes on the arrow with amusement.

"Hahaha, losing your touch little man? I heard from the other prisoners that you never miss, but I guess there is a first time for everything." Said Cinder looking up from the arrow; smiling gleefully as she prepared to conjure another fireball to obliterate Ren.

"Made you look." Ren quipped. Just as a massive billboard, with the image of Peter Ports radio talk show, collapsed on top of her with a loud CRASH, completely flattening her and also taking her out of the fight for a few moments so that Ren could take in his surroundings, he noticed that a rocket like object was coming in to his left, headed straight from BEACON and he concluded that it most likely was Ruby finally in her amour and coming to help them out, Nora had a few more people to help out as she had been carrying people over to the next roof and she now looked to be summoning a rain cloud to help put the fire out… that was impressive. Ren quickly noticed that the billboard was starting to turn an orange colour and was also starting to bubble, meaning that Cinder was getting back up and she would be very angry when she did and it would most likely be directed at Ren, so he decided to position himself in a way that would give Ruby a devastating opportunity.

As Ruby was flying in she brought up the emergency line and advised everyone in a three block radius to evacuate out and seek shelter as far away from the area as possible so that nobody would get hurt during the battle, she also had Penny perform a diagnostic review of her suit and found that she was at about sixty percent power, which should be enough to see her through the battle, Penny also notified her about the position of Ren and Cinder, apparently she had been crushed by a billboard.

"Salutation Ruby, I am happy to report that the diagnostic has come back positive. It is also worth to note that the temperature of the air around Cinder Fall is hot enough to cause the amour significant discomfort; I have also tuned the repulsors to output more power and less heat as it would stand to reason she might be able to take a blast of pure heat." Came the voice of Ruby's Artificial Intelligence and Ruby's personal assistant and good friend.

"Great are there any signs of civilians in the area after the warning?" asked Ruby hoping that she had been taken seriously.

"Yes there are but it appears the one known as Nora has made sure that they have been able to escape." Answered Penny without hesitation and giving Ruby a quick map of where the nearest civilian body was.

"Thanks Penny, time to cue the music." Said Ruby, as she landed on the ground sliding a little from the speed of her flight and shooting a double blast of her silver energy at Cinder's back as she burst out from the collapsed billboard and turned towards Ren in rage. The power of the blast sent Cinder flying down the street and smacking in to a parked bus denting it and even over turning it from the force of her impacting the bus. Ren nodded in greeting to Ruby and nocked another arrow in his bow and stood next to Ruby ready for the fight to continue.

Cinder climbed out of the bus with venom in her eyes and fire burning all around her body, she regarded Ruby with a murderous look as she blasted fire at Ren causing him to back flip out of the way and fire off his arrow which exploded in to a blinding light causing Cinder to lose sight of Ruby who flew above her and blasted her down into the ground with a continuous silver blast from her hands. This effectively worked for a couple of second s before Cinder shot up in to the air, propelled by fire and grabbed Ruby around the throat and punched her across the face. Fortunately this did nothing to hurt her due to the amour; however they were still ascending and Cinder kept punching Ruby in the face.

"Ruby you need to break loose; the heat she is putting out is similar to a volcano, and this material can only withstand a couple more minutes of constant exposure before it melts on to your skin." Cried Penny's voice into Ruby's ear.

"Noted." Replied Ruby as she tapped her leg in a specific place causing a panel to come out of the amour and release a spinning rotor of fireworks, this disorientated Cinder in to releasing Ruby who then flew above her and dived down, striking Cinder in the stomach with a double punch and then when the ground got close enough, she blasted her with another beam of silver power sending her towards the street and skidding along the road creating a trench, Ren then leapt over her and shot three explosive arrows at Cinder; the first one hit her face, the second hit her arm and the third managed to curve around and hit her in the back, causing her to stumble forward. They didn't hurt, but Ren wasn't trying to hurt her; he just wanted her off balance so that-

"BOOP!" Yelled Nora as she dove off the top of the now not burning building as her rain cloud had put it out, and smacked Cinder as hard as she could with her hammer, sending her upwards crashing through the top of a building and down into the next street. Now that had to have hurt her a lot more then Handsome Ren's arrows, not that he wasn't doing a good job, he had set her up for one hail-Mary of a swing that her dad would have been very proud of.

Nora then jumped over the building and floated down next to where Cinder had landed in her own crater and hefted her hammer on top of her shoulders admiring the way that her opponent simply, stood up from a blow of such power. This was truly a battle for the ages and Nora was happy that even if the mortal may have been evil and her intentions were less than pure, she was still strong willed.

"Stay down. Final warning." Said Ruby as she landed next to Nora, and Nora took a moment to admire the amour her friend was wearing; it was awesome.

Back to the fight.

"Oh I'm just getting started." Replied Cinder as she blasted forward and punched Nora back into the side of a building shaking the foundations and then taking a swing at Ruby, who blasted herself back to a ranged distance and then flew back in kicking Cinder across the face as hard as she could and landing facing her square on. The kick hurt a little bit, but the pain could be taken as she prepared to shoot a wave of fire at the armoured pest and cook her in the suit, just as an arrow shot past her head wrapping around her hands and then melting almost instantly, however it stopped her from conjuring the wave of fire for a moment, but that was all Ruby needed as she fired a blast of silver from her chest, launching Cinder backwards into the swing of the hammer of Nora who caught her at the optimal time and sent her across the street and crashing into another building which then collapsed on top of Cinder.

As they all gather on the street in-front of the building they shared a collective look with each other and took up positions that best suited their style of combat; Nora stood at the front of the group as she was capable of taking the full force of Cinders hits and giving as good as she got, Ruby floated next to her able to blast powerful beams of energy that could send her into the ground for a short period of time, and finally Ren stood the furthest away as he had no defence other than his agility against the blasts of fire and his weapon was excellent for distraction and diversion allowing the heavy hitters to hit harder and not have to worry about their attacks being blocked or evaded.

Outburst Cinder flying from the rubble and heading straight for Ruby, punching her as hard as she could, sending her back into a car and then lifting up another car to slam down on top of her, trapping her in a metal cage. Next she caught the arrow that Ren fired at her and ducked under the swing that Nora gave her and blasted Nora with the strongest blast of fire that she could manage sending her tumbling. Ren fired two more arrows at Cinder but hey both missed her and flew past, when she turned around to look where they had gone she was greeted by a car being thrown at her which hit her in the face sending her reeling back a little bit before she ripped through the car and dodged the silver blast of energy headed straight for her and then, sidestepped the downward strike of Nora's hammer, before creating a cocoon of fire around her body and then releasing it in a powerful blast striking Ruby and Nora sending them into buildings and knocking them down to the ground, the blast also sent a lot of debris toward Ren, who managed to dodge most of it until it a car door stuck him and sent him into the ground, groaning.

"DO YOU REALLY THINK YOU PEOPLE STOOD A CHANCE AGAINST ME! CINDER FALL! THE STRONGEST PERSON IN ALL OF REMNANT!" Screamed Cinder, as she glared at each of them; breathing heavily and yelling through the pain of being smacked around by the hammer repeatedly, as well as the silver blasts.

"I AM THE STRONGEST YOU THERE IS! YOU AREN'T EVEN WORTH THE DIRT ON MY SHOES!" She continued yelling. "YOU WILL ALL SUF-" then she felt a tapping on her shoulder like someone was trying to get her attention and a voice said

"Wow, and I thought I got Yang-ry."

This lead to Cinder making what has to be the dumbest decision of her life; Cinder actually turned around to come face to face with a punch. A punch that hurt as much as the hammer girl, maybe even more, and it sent her flying straight through another building, adding more scrapes to her already battered and bruised body. Cinder ended up lying on the city's outskirts shaking her head to clear her vision from the strongest attack that had hit her so far and she didn't even know who it was form, other than her newest play thing.

Nora recovered first from the attack, as was to be expected when you are as tough as she is, and she stood up just in time to catch the end of Cinder's little speech about how awesome she is. Nora also witnessed one of the funniest things ever; Cinder was so distracted that she didn't even hear the blonde girl land behind her and punch her through the stratosphere. And what a beautiful punch it was, coming all the way from the hips, relaxed shoulder and a perfect follow through, not stopping when the fist hit her face, but still moving afterwards, as though she was punching through Cinder instead of just hitting her. Now THAT was a FIGHTER, and a strong one at that, this just meant one thing to Nora.

They needed to arm wrestle.

And just as Nora was about to ask to arm wrestle, or to at least make some time to arm wrestle later, the blonde woman jumped after Cinder's flying body heading to no doubt finish her off; not without her she wasn't, or Ren, or Ruby. This was their fight as well, and mum always said you finish what you start; she was talking about vegetables, but Nora could see its usefulness in other daily applications, this being one of them for example. Nora flew over to where Ren was, as he pushed the car door off him and accepted her hand to help her up.

"Blondie gave us a bit of breathing room, but she'll need a hand, because this chick is strong!" Explained Nora

"Let's go." Said Ren as Nora wrapped her arm around his waist and took off towards where the blond girl and Cinder landed. Ruby blasted off after them and caught up with Nora just as she asked Ren.

"Any idea who the new girl is?"

"No." replied Ren his eyes scanning the areas that they both disappeared too.

"I called in some back up." Said Ruby as she flew up next to Nora and Ren. "Say hello to my sister; Yang."

"The Dragon?" Questioned Ren, cocking an eyebrow in Ruby's direction.

"Yep." She squeaked out in reply. This caused Ren to sigh and then look at Ruby with a strange look, as though he was asking if Yang could be trusted after what she did in Atlas.

"I called her, and she came to help, she doesn't attack people unless they attack her. Please Ren, we need you, all we can do is hit hard, but eventually Cinder is going to wear us down, you keep her guessing and give use openings, please work with her." Said Ruby and Ren was certain that she was pulling a puppy dog face, but the armoured helmet didn't show. Instead Nora gave him a puppy dog look… dammit… it worked.

"Okay, let's takedown Cinder." Said Ren after a second. As they fly closer to the area where Yang punched Cinder too, they notice that they are going toe-to-toe in an incredible display of strength from both fighters, the heat that Cinder is giving off obviously didn't seem to be effecting Yang in the slightest, however the attacks that Cinder was throwing back at Yang were clearly doing a lot more damage.

Yang was striking with combo attacks, resorting to fighting like a boxer; she would go for a left jab to the head to put Cinder off balance, and then come in with a right cross to the stomach, following up with a left hook. Cinder manages to doge all of these attacks ducking under the jab, deflect the cross to the side and then ducked under the left hook and brought her knee up into Yang's stomach and then threw her towards a group of tree's crashing through all of them.

Seeing this Nora flung Ren towards one of the taller tree's, confident that he could get his footing and begin his own attack, this allowed Nora to call down a lightening blast to her hammer and then bring it down on to Cinder, who managed to step back out of the way to avoid the full brunt of the attack, however she was still affected by the lightening blast as it knocked her back a few feet, and she was then hit by two electric arrows in the back shocking her for a moment before they melted, however that momentary distraction was all that was needed, as Ruby blasted her with more silver repulsor fire sending her to the ground in yet another crater.

If they kept going at her like this she was eventually going to notice their attack strategy was very basic, and then it would only be a matter of time before she managed to take them down one-by-one, and Ruby was already getting low on power, having gone from sixty percent down to thirty-five percent, the power she was putting in her repulsors was needed to push back Cinder, but soon she was going to be a sitting duck in her amour. That's when she had an idea, if she could just get everyone to coordinate together they could get Cinder to be taken down for good. Okay the hardest hitting thing they had was Nora's hammer, but Cinder was fast and was able to fly quickly in each direction, but not if she was stunned by a certain strong woman knocked her in to the sky, Ren had a whole assortment of arrows there was a good chance he had smoke so that her vision could be obstructed and then Ren could keep her attention; PERFECT!

After flying over to Ren she told him what to do and then went to go and inform Yang who was just getting out from under the trees, it was hard to not give her a hug at the moment as this was the first time they had seen each other since Ruby had managed to escape the Grimm cult in Vacuo. Cueing Nora into the plan would be easy; Ruby would just look at her and then point at Cinder and say 'nail her' as loud as she could.

With a plan now given out Ren could finally see an end to the battle, and a nap in sight, which was all he really wanted anyway and now he was even closer to it and it was much more deserved. Ren also realised that the secret kept from him about Cinder's true abilities were not the first secret that Director Ozpin and DDA Goodwitch had kept from him. He didn't realise that Yang was Ruby's sister as that wasn't said in either of their files, had had to find out on his own about the experimentation of his colleague in Mistral by the Atlas science division and when he questioned Director Ozpin about it, he lied and told him he didn't know about this.

"THIS CONFLICT HAS GONE ON LONG ENOUGH NOW! YOU SHOULD BOW DOWN BEFORE ME AND BEG FOR MERCY!" Screamed Cinder, as she set waves of fire to a flying Ruby trying to knock her out of the sky. That was when four different arrows impacted the area around her and she braced herself for an explosion, but then all they did was hiss and then she was in the middle of a massive cloud of smoke. That was when Ren realised that she might just fly up and try to get out of the smoke and mess up their plan, so acting fast he charged forward and shot a lot of bullets at her to get her attention focused on him. It worked a little too well, as she turned to him fully and prepared to incinerate him into nothing but ashes. However she never got the chance as Yang had managed to creep up behind her and turn her around again and launch her into the air with a massive uppercut that knocked her head back and rattled her brain, thus causing her to lose focus and make sure she wouldn't be flying away from the next attack as Ruby shot up into the air high above her.

"Penny put everything we got into the chest piece!" yelled Ruby to her AI

"Ruby are you su-" asked Penny

"JUST DO IT!" she cried back. Needless to say Penny came through and diverted all non-essential energy to the chest piece, which meant that the largest blast of silver repulsor energy slammed full force in to Cinder's ascending body, sending her hurtling towards the ground at neck breaking speeds, sure to hurt even someone as tough as her. Just before she was about to impact the ground Ruby turned her helmet to speaker mode and pointed at screamed as loud as she could to the hammer wielder.

"NORA, NAIL HER!" luckily Nora understood it immediately and had been in the air waiting for the right moment to strike, she quickly summoned as much lightening she could muster causing a massive thunder cloud to come over the group and dove down after Cinder, letting the lightening strike her body and her hammer, powering her up to levels she didn't think she could reach before. As she almost reached Cinder who had at this point crashed in to the ground and was now in the middle of a large amount of rubble, she decided to shout out a battle cry letting this fire woman know exactly who she was dealing with.

"FOR THE SOLTHS!"

And then she brought the hammer down as hard as she could on top of Cinder's body, making most people a mile away feel the effects of what they believed to be an earthquake happening right outside their city, little did they know that it was actually the thunder of the goddess shaking the core of Remnant, not for the first time as she had been tot the planet before, however that was seven hundred years ago and they didn't have anything cool like fire women, armoured flying girls, blonde chicks who were as strong as she was or very handsome Ren's. Personally Nora felt like she had lucked out this time visiting Remnant.

As the dust clear all of the combatants gathered around Cinder's body and looked down at her from the top of her crater; she appeared to be completely beaten, her body covered in bruises and cuts, her once lovely hair was now ruined as it was choppy and uneven, as well as spikey from the lightening blast. In short she looked like hell, but she still tried to stand and it appeared she even had something to say before she was finished.

"You … will… die… now…" she breathed out.

Yang then stepped forward and flicked her in the face to which Cinder fell backwards and passed out truly beaten.

"Nope." She said before turning back to her fellow fighters, looking a little bit sceptical, as she wasn't sure how they were going to react to seeing her in this place, they might even turn on her, well Ruby wouldn't, but she wasn't sure about the arrow dude or the hammer chick that was standing WAY to close to him.

"Soooo, that was a thing." Said Yang smiling nervously, although that soon turned in to genuine as Ruby dashed forward and leapt into her arms hugging her as hard as she could.

"YANG!"

"Ruby."

"NOOOORRRRRAAAA!" Shouted the ginger hammer girl as she lifted both of them up in to a massive bear hug that had Yang wincing at the strength, this girl was strong.

"Ohhh it's so good to see that Remnant has got such awesome people this time around, when I came here a while ago they just had a couple of guys with swords, they were cool looking, but you guys kick butt, like Valkyrie level kick butt, you ever want to come back with me to fight giant ice monsters then just say the word, they are always attacking some village or other up in the mountain and it's my favourite past time and you guys would make it even better, we could have a competition and see who can beat the most an-"

"Nora, give them a chance to speak." Interrupted the arrow dude; placing his hand on Nora's shoulder to stop her from rambling and to let them out of the bear hug. Thankfully, Nora as she was now known did let them go and gave the sole male a big toothy grin.

"Maybe it would be best to introduce ourselves to you; I am Lie Ren, an agent of BEACON." Said Ren bowing slightly in agreement however he did not taking his eyes off of Yang's eyes. She immediately got the hidden message, he knew what she was and what she could do, but the look in his eyes wasn't the same as all of the other agents and soldiers that had come after her, and yes there was caution but there was no malice, anger or fear, instead he seemed grateful that she had arrived when she had to help out. So Yang smiled back at him and held out her hand as she wasn't sure if she should bow back.

"Yang Xaio-Long, the dreaded Dragon, but I guess you already know about me." She said unsure what he would do, surprisingly he took her hand and gave it a shake.

"I have heard about you, but I think seeing is believing, and I have now seen what you are, thank you." It was a simple thing, but Yang understood, this man had known of the path of destruction she left in her wake, but still thanked her for helping her out, she had guessed right before, he was thanking her with his eyes.

They were still shaking hands and that annoyed Nora for some reason, where was her hand shake when she met Ren, all he did was stare and then she booped him, but this Yang girl got the hand shake. Now it was time for Nora's hand shake, so she reached in and pulled their hands apart and grabbed Ren's hand and started to shake it.

"You didn't do this to me when we met." She said as she then let go of his hand.

"Don't worry Nora, he's not my type, I like a little more smiley, but I guess eye candy is eye candy." Said Yang; with a twinkle in her eyes as she looked from the hammer wielder to the archer already sensing the prime opportunity to tease them.

"Eye candy?" asked Nora confused.

"Never heard the expression? How old are you? Every woman knows it." Says Yang

"One thousand, five hundred and twenty two years old. I don't think it is a saying on my planet though." Replied Nora honestly.

"You're from a different planet?! Oh this is the best day ever! And your so strong I propose-" declared Yang

"AN ARM WRESTLE." They both said at the same time and then high fived creating a loud smack, causing the air to ripple with power and a small breeze to pick up from the force of the highest of fives.

"I can teach you all about boy's, it will be so much fun." Said Yang smiling whole heartedly and momentarily forgetting who she was, so caught up in the moment.

"Yaaaaannngggg." Moaned Ruby, as she noticed her sister about to do a similar thing back when they went to school.

"BY ORDER OF THE ATLAS MILITARY YOU ARE TO STAND DOWN. NOW!" Bellowed a voice over a loud speaker, and that is when the group noticed several helicopters and bullheads fly above them, as well as a lot of trucks come into the area with several men jump out and point their guns at the four people stood at the edge of the new landmark they had created, Ren sighed as he supposed it was only a matter of time before these people showed up, as it would have been easy for any civilian who was stupid enough to stay and try to get a catastrophe on camera to make some money and the military would have defiantly seen Yang and demanded her arrest as soon as they could.

Ruby looked around and had Penny scan for any STRQ industries weapons and found that a lot of the troops were carrying guns that she had made, guns she knew were the source of much pain in Vacuo, guns which were being sold to bandits in Mistral and guns that had almost killed her. At least she knew where her weapons were now.

Yang was angry, she really could not catch a break, want to be left alone, BOOM. Want to live a normal life, BOOM. Try to help out your sister and her new friends take down some fire chick, BOOM. Everything she did just wasn't going to go to plan, maybe she should just give up and go with them, she couldn't run forever after all.

Nora was intrigued, why were all these people pointing their shiny things at her, did they think it would hurt her? Mortals really were so vast and different, some could be incredible strong like this Yang girl that Nora was actually starting to like, some could be really cool like Ruby as the amour was awesome, some could be as brave as Ren. But then there were these guys who turned up after the fight and asked them to stand still, and they didn't even say thank you for beating Cinder, that was rude, and mum always said 'treat everyone you meet with respect when you first meet them, if they don't do the same, they don't deserve you time.' Well saying thank you would classified as being respectful back seeing how Nora and her new friends hadn't even tried to move, but these guys still hadn't said thank you, so they didn't get her respect. Simple.

"Yang Xaio-Long, you are under arrest and will be coming with us now." Said a short woman pointing her finger right at Yang, who looked almost as though she had given up on everything and was considering going with the rude people, Nora was not going to stand for that, even if she had to hit everybody here with her hammer, fortunately she didn't need to do any of that as Ruby stepped in-front of Yang and held her arms out wide, not noticing her cape slap Yang in the face because she did it so quickly.

"If you want my sister you're going to have to go through me." She said causing all the troops to look nervously between each other, they weren't prepared to fight The Dragon and The Iron Reaper. That's when Ren stepped forward and stood beside Ruby, putting himself between them and her, and now the troops were stating to question their orders as most knew that Ren never missed a shot in his life.

"Yeah what she said!" yelled Nora stepping in-front of Yang as well, causing most of the troops to fiddle with their weapons, apparently according to the videos of the fight this woman called down lightning strikes on Cinder Fall and survived a whole building collapsing on her. They really didn't want to fight her as well as the others, and their leader could tell that this might be a losing battle, but dammit if she wasn't going to show them the might of the Atlas military and punish them for their insolence and stupidity.

"Stand down everyone, there has been enough damage to this forest and to the surrounding areas for a while now. Why don't we talk about this like adults?" said Director Ozpin as he stepped out of a car that had just pulled up to the scene, with DDA Goodwitch getting out of the other side and multiple BEACON agents coming on to the scene, adding more people pointing their guns at the four 'heroes'.

"Director Ozpin, this is none of your concern, Yang Xaio-Long is property of Atlas and she will be coming back with us."

"NOPE." Said Ruby stepping forward and moving towards the short woman. " Yang is my sister, she was born on Patch, she is part of STRQ industries, a company that has ordered the recall of every weapon they have ever made, so that we can do something good, yet I have managed to spot multiple STRQ weapons in this group just here. Despite what I demanded, I guess I need to get more lawyers involved and make some personal visits, because it seems the Atlas military cannot be trusted. And since I have the support of the council for my order, I wonder what that could mean for you and the rest of the military; discharge? Prison? Demotion? Finned?"

The woman spluttered and glared at Ruby, but she was right. If this got out it would be hazardous for her reputation, and that could not happen, so she motioned for her troops to drop off the weapons, and then to leave the area, this was not a battle for today, but another time. Befroe she left she spoke to Director Ozpin.

"This isn't over, the General will demand an explanation."

"He has my number." Replied Director Ozpin not sparring the woman another glance as she left, she was nothing but a headache, all be it a very annoying one.

"I want to say a good job on the defeat of Cinder Fall, I am very impressed and-"

"It would have been better if we knew what we were up against to begin with." Said Ren looking the Director in the eyes.

"What you talking about Ren?" asked Nora looking up at him.

"In all the information about the prisoners, it never said anything about her abilities. Yet you knew exactly what we were up against before you sent us over to fight her." Explained Ren to Nora and then turned back to the Director glaring at him accusingly.

"Yes some information was indeed kept a secret from you Agent Ren, but it was for the be-"

"No it wasn't" interrupted Yang "If they knew what they were going up against I bet they wouldn't have even needed me to help, hell if you told them about her beforehand Nora probably could take her solo."

"Thanks."

"No problem."

"I understand that, but you four still did a good job, and if you worked for BEACON, think of what you could do."

They all stood there in silence, looking at each other, then at Cinder as she was being pulled up from the crater and handcuffed with STRQ industries cuff's designed hold people with enhanced abilities, they realised that they could do some good as they already had managed to stop a villain and save some people, even if it actually was Nora's fault to begin with. Eventually all of the looks turned to Ruby; Nora looking at her expectantly, Yang also as though she was waiting for her to decide what to do and Ren was just looking at her, his face showing nothing until he said.

"You came up with the plan, this victory is yours, so whatever you decide we're with you." And Nora and Yang both nodded, the latter placing her hand on Ruby's armoured shoulder in support.

"We will stay together, and we will help people and fight the battles that people cannot fight, but we will do it on our own terms, we don't want to work for anybody and we don't want to have secrets being kept from us, that is not how this is going to work." Said Ruby as the others all nodded in agreement and stood strong by her side.

"You are making a mistake, acting like children, can you not see that it would be better to work for us?" asked DDA Goodwitch, placing her hands on her hips. She reminded Nora of her mum with the scary glare that she was throwing them, but she couldn't throw a mountain at her for not doing as she was told. Could she?

"Maybe we are making a mistake, but it is our mistake to make, and we aren't children, we are the ones who will search for the evil doers, look for anyone to help and never stop moving forward to protect this planet. We are The Hunters of Remnant, and we are going to help." Said Ruby

"Very well then, if this is your choice I will not argue with you. Just know that if you ever need help you'll have it. Goodbye and good luck… Hunters."

And with that all of the BEACON agents left taking Cinder back, most likely to lock her back up in the Emerald Forest and this time making sure that she would never get out again. The four heroes, now dubbed as the Hunters all stood there for a moment taking in the area, all the damage and each other; Yang's outfit was burnt but still on her covering up her… vital areas with a few bruises along her arms and face as Cinder had really hit her hard, Ruby's amour was scorched and had scratches all over it and her cape was even more torn, Ren had cuts all over his arms and some on his face as well as a bruise under his eye. Nora was grinning like a mad woman, her skirt burnt up, her jacket had several holes in it and she had a bleeding lip, her hammer as always was undamaged and ready to rumble.

"So what now?" asked Yang looking around at everyone.

"Easy, we go home." Said Ruby, as she had called in her own personal bullhead while they were waiting in silence, as it landed Ruby got on to it and stepped out of her amour and went to the cockpit, with Yang and Ren following her and Nora took the time to admire to awesome ship before she raced after her friends. The bullhead then took off and started flying over the ocean and soon the four of them were descending and back on the ground. They had landed in a massive garden of an even bigger house, to which Ruby walked in to very comfortable with her amour being pushed along on a cart as it was too low on power for her to walk it in all the way down to the lab, as the others made their way through the front door a voice rang out through the house startling the three who did not know about the house's AI.

"SALUTATIONS. Welcome back home Ruby and a hello to your friends, I am Penny."

"The house has a voice?" Asked Nora a little scared and confused by what was going on with that, as she only knew of one object that had its own voice that her father had talked about, and he said it scared him more than anything in all the realms.

"Yeah I made her when I was thirteen, she handles a lot of business of STRQ industries and helps me run my amour and also my life, she's cool, I'm cool, no biggy." Said Ruby offhandedly. "And I was thinking that if we are going to be a team then this could be our home, a team would be better if we knew each other a lot more, right?"

"Be nice to sleep in a proper bed, and hang out with you more sis, I'm in."

"You fight well, I like that besides, I have sworn to defend the realms and I like this one."

"No more secrets, and a chance to help people. I will gladly fight by your side, if you lead us."

"Well then… let's get to work."

* * *

And so ends the beginning, More to come and more people to be added, do not worry, this one will be multi chapter. As there will need to be a bit of a split between the events as they might not happen continually.

I might also do some more solo stories as very long one shots, but I just need to figure out which characters I want to do, Suggestions would be welcome.

Over and Out.


	2. A test of Strength

Chapter two: A test of strength

As the sun came up over the mansion the inhabitants of the home were all in various different states of sleep; Nora, the goddess of thunder, princess of Valkyrie and heir to the throne of the Realms was upside down with her head hanging off the bed and drool coming out of her mouth, wearing short shorts and a t-shirt with the word BOOP on it. She was fast asleep and dead to the world. Yang was in a similar position, but was squeezing her pillow as hard as she could and almost popped it on several occasions, she was wearing short shorts, the same make as Nora and a bright yellow tank top, she was snoring heavily and her hair was splayed all over the bed. Ruby was wrapped up in a cocoon of blankets and was wearing pyjama trousers and a pyjama top to try and keep her warm, she had a glass of milk and some cookies next to her bed on the table, well had a glass of milk and some cookies, as before she fell asleep she ate all of the cookies and drank the milk quickly. She wasn't making any noise, but she was face down in the pillows. Ren usually slept straight and with his hands folded over his chest and stomach wearing nothing but his pants, and tonight was no different, however he also woke up at certain times as well, and this was one of them, he had the tendency to rise with the sun, so that is what he did, and then he began to get dressed in light workout clothes as he normally did some exercise before he started work as an agent. So he put on a t-shirt and some trousers, leaving his normal combat outfit behind as he didn't need it for what he was going to be doing. Making his way out of his room he looked at all of the other doors and made a mental note of who slept where; Ruby was at the very end of the hall and had the biggest room, Yang was the door on the right next to her and Ren was exactly opposite Yang, with Nora right next to his room. Including all of their sleeping quarters there were eight rooms in total, which meant there was the possibility to add four more members to the team that could sleep in this wing.

Making his way down the hall Ren turned left down the main stairs and found himself in the entrance room, which was a massive room with lovely hanging chandelier and the STRQ industries logo on the floor. Ren also knew from the tour that if he went up back up the stairs and took the left instead of the right towards the rooms, he would make his way towards the gym and Ruby's personal laboratory where she developed her amour and other inventions. Ren however was looking for the kitchen as he wanted some tea before he started his morning routine.

Finding himself in the kitchen he noted that it had a massive table in the middle of it, perfect for sitting eight people around it with space to add more if they needed, and that it connected on to the living room, which had a large sofa, a couple of armchairs and a loveseat? Why would Ruby need that? As far as Ren knew she had never expressed any interest in anybody or anything outside of her work. But Ren spared it no more thought as he was exactly where he needed to be, and now he just had to find out where everything was.

"Good morning Agent Ren, how are you today? Functioning at optimal levels I hope?" Came the voice of Ruby's AI that she had introduced them to yesterday. It startled Ren a little bit, but he didn't show it as he had grown used to people trying to get a reaction out of him.

"Good morning Penny. You can just call me Ren, and I am well." He replied, unsure as to where to look so he just stared straight ahead.

"Sensational, let me know if you need anything Ren." Came the reply instantly.

"Actually where do you keep the tea bags?"

After Penny had given Ren the run-down of the kitchen, and Ren had finally managed to make his long sought after cup of tea, he proceeded to head outside for some fresh air and to also run through some of his martial arts katas, he hoped that if any of the others were to wake up then Penny would inform them of his where a bouts and what he was doing, as he was sure that the house's AI was keeping an eye on all of them as they did their things.

Surprisingly Yang was the next to wake up, giving a large stretch as she did so and yawning loudly, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. She looked around the room and sighed, it felt good to be in a safe place, a home. And she was back with her sister, what more could she want? She even met some new awesome friends, that ninja archer guy Ren was basically the strong silent type if she ever met one and Nora was like the polar opposite of him, expressive and wearing her heart on her sleeve, not to mention that hammer packed a punch! And if she was saying that then it must be true. They looked so cute together as well, the way she looked up at him with her big toothy grin, the way he was the only one who stopped her rambling, and who also looked like he was hanging on every word. Thinking about it a guy like that would probably have a bit of difficulty making friends so they were most likely his first real friends.

Yang was also in the same boat, before the accident most people looked at her like a ditzy blonde who leached off the smarter and more successful sister Ruby. While it was true that Ruby was a genius when it came to electronics and mechanics, Yang was actually far more interested in biology. She just happened to be the best looking biologist there was so of course nobody took her seriously, and to top it off she was blonde so she had to deal with all those jokes. Some admittedly were actually quite funny. Cancelling that train of thought, Yang decided breakfast was in order, so she set off on her quest to find the kitchen.

Once downstairs and in the kitchen she asked Penny similar questions to Ren, although when Penny greeted her with a good morning, Yang let out a very heroic scream and defiantly didn't put a hole in the wall. Finding out that Ren was outside and the other two were still asleep Yang decided to join her new teammate outside to see how he was doing.

She managed to spot him over near the trees doing what looked to be shadow boxing, but as she got closer it turns out he was just doing a martial arts kata, she knew that from her days of boxing training, as her trainer was also skilled in martial arts and often did katas as a warm up. Watching him for a few more seconds as he finished, Yang took note of how careful he was with his moves and how polished the whole kata looked, he truly was an exceptional fighter.

"Morning Yang." Said Ren; without turning to her and then sitting in a meditated position, the lotus position if her general knowledge was any good.

"Hey Ren, how are you doing today? Bruises cleared up?" Yang asked, both a little awkward and also concerned, he didn't have any powers like Her and Nora or an advanced amour like Ruby, so he was bound to feel the pain more than they were.

"They sting, but they will heal easily." He replied, his voice level. He seemed like he was being cold to Yang for some reason, maybe she should ask him.

"Do you not like me?" Yang blurted out, she wasn't used to this whole dancing around feelings and how people felt about her, this needed to be done now and out in the open. Ren sighed and opened his eyes and turned to her and went in to a kneeling position.

"I never said that. And I don't dislike you, but I am warry of you. You destroyed most of downtown Atlas when you escaped their facility, and everywhere you go destruction seems to follow in your wake. I am worried how that will affect all of us here."

"So you don't trust me." Summed up Yang

"Not yet, however if Ruby trusts you, I will be willing to give it a shot at trusting you myself. She has a good head on her shoulders."

Yang gave a little smile at that "Yeah she does, where she got it from I have no idea. All she had was me growing up."

"I never said you didn't have a good head on your shoulders either."

"What can I do to earn your trust?" Asked Yang, she needed to get along with the people that were going to be on her team, and if she got Ren's trust and got him to be less cautious around her that would be for the best.

"Tell me something you haven't told someone else and I will do the same." Replied Ren looking deadly serious and motioning for Yang to sit with him.

"I only met my real mother once in my life and I hated her." Began Yang with her eyes closed and her head down as Ren's gaze bore down on her features. "She gave birth to me and then left, my dad could tell why, and when she did come back several years latter Ruby was already born, My mother talked looked at me and Ruby and then what we had done during the time she had been away. I was seven at the time and Ruby was five, and I had just come in from swimming and Ruby was playing with a robot she and dad were trying to build, and my mums first and last words to me were 'Why couldn't I have gotten the smart one.' And then she and my dad argued and then in the morning she was gone. Dad died when I was Ten, uncle Qrow when I was eight and Summer, who was Ruby's mum, died during her birth. My mum Raven hasn't been heard from in years, and if I'm being honest I don't want to know where she is or what she is doing." Finished Yang, tears streaming down her face, yet her voice held strong. As she wiped the tears away a hand fell on her shoulder and she noticed Ren was now next to her, just being there.

"When I was little, my village was attacked. It was the Grimm cult, they had come to Mistral to try and set up roots, my father managed to get me to safety and went back to fight them. I never saw him again. I joined the circus soon after that and picked up the knife throwing and archery spectacles, soon we came across another village and the Grimm cult attacked, I managed to fight back and I had one down on the ground at my feet and he just grinned at me and waited for me to shoot the arrow. But I couldn't. He deserved death, it would be perfect. His life for my fathers. But what would he think of me if he saw me do that? That wasn't justice, that was revenge and if I sought out to remember my father and honour him purely with revenge, then was I really honouring him? So I let him live and hunted down the others in the village, by the time the police got there I had captured them all, and that's when Director Ozpin took me in." When Ren finished Yang noticed he had on the same stare that most people got when talking about lost loved ones and wondering the big what if factors that could of lead them down a different path, all she did was place her hand on top of his and say.

"Please don't kiss me, we are not building up to that." This caused Ren to smile and then start to chuckle slightly and then to almost burst out laughing uncontrollably, Yang however went straight to explosive laughter and soon they were just sat there staring at the trees together enjoying the peace and-

"GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOODDDDDDDDDDDDDDD MORNING TEAMMATES!" Yelled Nora as loud as she could behind them, causing Yang to jump into the trees in shook and knock down some of them as she barrelled through them, meanwhile Ren just turned his head to her and nodded in greeting.

"I assume you were both out here because you have had breakfast while we were asleep, and that you were enjoying the fresh air and nothing else." Said Nora

"Yes." Replied Yang nervously as Nora was currently nose to nose with her and staring into her eyes, turquoise bearing right into lilac hoping to find out any lies.

"Gooooooooood. Because DIBS." Said Nora staring pointedly at Yang who just sighed in relief, completely confusing Ren, what did she call dibs on? Yang had already had breakfast.

"I will help you with that if you want, give you advice and an ear to talk to if needed." Offered Yang, had they already made plans? Did they know about an underground layer of villains and were arguing over who got to fight the strongest amongst them? Ren was lost.

"Greetings Ren, thunder thighs, and best girl. Ruby want to let you guys know she has found something that might interest the three of you." Informed Penny's disembodied voice, most likely coming from the wall that was near the area they were sitting in.

"Thunder thighs? Most women would hate to be called that." Said Yang to Nora, as Ren silently agreed, as he had heard several agents talking about female bodies at some point, it was rather concerning how they viewed the 'idea woman'. Ren didn't know if he had a certain 'type' as everyone called it, he just hadn't been interested and no one had ever shown interest in him ever, so it wasn't like he was losing anything.

"I am the goddess of thunder, and my thighs are a weapon, besides I'm awesome so what do I care?" asked Nora "My friends on Valkyrie would call me that all the time, and they would laugh about it, isn't it funny?"

Yang and Ren shared a look before Ren stepped forward and looked Nora right in the eyes and placed a hand on her shoulder, making sure he had her full undivided attention and nothing else.

"I don't have much experience with friends, but I know a thing or two about liars, and pretenders. I think you're 'friends' were just that, people trying to get close to a goddess and use her." Said Ren sadly, and he could see the wheels turning in Nora's head, she was thinking about every interaction she could between her and her 'friends'.

"No they wouldn't, I'll show you when I take you to Valkyrie." Said Nora shakenly.

"Okay, we'll believe you Nora, but for now let us go and see what Ruby has for us." Ren said slowly and carefully before offering his hand for Nora to hold as they walked back to the house. Yang smiled at the two as Nora took the hand and her mood picked up significantly because of that and together the three of them walked back inside and followed Penny's instructions and they managed to end up in a meeting room with a round table, the round table had a hologram of a mountain on it and Ruby was sat in one of the seats waiting for them while tapping away at her scroll.

"Finally!" exclaimed Ruby as she turned to them in her seat and looked at each of them "I was wandering where you all were."

"Just outside enjoying the fresh morning air, you would know if you woke up earlier." Retorted Yang coming to the seat next to Ruby and almost reaching out to ruffle her hair, but remembering her own strength and deciding to play it off in sticking her thumb up at her face, it looked ridicules and Nora couldn't help but let out a laugh while sitting down on Nora's other side with Ren choosing the seat next to her.

"Nah I'm good; however we have our first official mission." Ruby declared proudly; now this got Nora's attention the chance to break some stuff was always fun. And maybe they could do some more awesome teamwork together; like Ren and her doing some awesome stuff together and then her and Yang, then Ren again, it would be so cool.

"Mountain Glenn." Says Ren his eyes not leaving the hologram. "It's been abandoned for years ever since it was found to be unstable after the earthquake."

"Not as abandoned as you might think." Replies Ruby. Ren then shoots her a confused look to which she explains further.

"I've had Penny looking for any signal that my weapons give off, and it only works if they are fired, that how I have been able to locate tons of my weapons. The other has been gathering data on the people most likely in position and tracking their movements. Using the STRQ industries satellite, Penny managed to find that a weapon was fired in the forest around Mountain Glenn, looking further Penny also noted that there has been very slight seismic activity around the centre and a lot of energy is coming from the area, so I suspect that there is something going on that does not want to be discovered."

Ruby then looked around at her team; Ren had his hand on his chin and was looking like he was deep in thought trying to think of any information he could about Mountain Glenn in the BEACON files. Nora was copying Ren's look, but was admiring the mountains and despite being from another world working around the hologram model very well, expanding it and shrinking it where needed. Yang gave Ruby a smile full of confidence and placed both her hands on the table standing up to address the other two.

"Well I think we should give it a look, we need to strike first and not wait for problems to come up."

"I agree." Said Ren "However we need to go in with caution, there is the possibility that this might be a research lab sanctioned by the council."

"Either way they have my weapons, and I will be getting them back." Said Ruby, as she firmly crossed her arms over her chest.

"I will not argue with that, but we do not need to fight if they will hand over the weapons."

"Awww, I wanted to kick-butt." Cried Nora, slumping in her seat and pouting cutely.

"Then it's settled, suit up guys!" Ordered Ruby as they left the meeting room and the hologram turned off. Ruby headed to her lab to go and get suited up. She pressed her hand up to a panel next to the door and after a quick scan it let her walk through where she was met by her armour standing tall in the middle of the room. It quickly opened up and she stepped inside it and the amour then began to shut her in and power up, Ruby was testing out a new weapon for this mission and wanted to see how well it would hold up against whatever they would find in the mountains. After she was fully armoured up, she left the lab and headed outside to the bullhead to wait for the others, hopefully Yang had seen her gift.

Ren walked into his room and grabbed his usual combat uniform and changed out of his workout clothes into it. While he was changing he thought about his talk with Yang, what she told him was very personal and what he told her was something that he had only told Di- Ozpin and Goodwitch and the agent therapist after a particularly trying mission. If she could tell him something like that then he could trust her, and he doubted she would misuse that trust. Nora was something else, judging from the way she talked about her home she clearly loved it and it was a very special place in her heart. Ren however doubted that the 'friends' she had back on her planet were actually her 'friends', he had seen it before where people would try to get close to someone who was famous and well liked, just to say they knew them. Ren would do his best to make sure that Nora knew he could be trusted as a real friend, she deserved it and needed it.

Nora was thinking, and thinking extremely hard. She thought about what Ren and Yang said, and they had to be wrong. The people on Valkyrie were her friends, they had thought battles together all across the Realms, protected each other, almost died for each other and if that wasn't friendship then what was? True she didn't go to the learning hall that often with them, as her father would often send her to help in battles where ever he could; her brother on the other hand, managed to go the learning hall with all of their friends all the time. She would often find them together outside of the learning hall as well, mostly down at the market. Nora didn't get invited to come as she only saw them their when she was flying overhead and returning from a battle. However that little nagging voice in her head told her that maybe they liked her older brother and she was just the tag along, and if that was true; then was she really friends with these people?

Yang looked around her room trying to find something to wear for a fight, her clothes had been ruined during the battle with Cinder, burned from her and almost leaving her naked and she was not giving anyone a free show. That was when she saw it; sitting on her chair was a package with her name on it written in Ruby's chicken scratch. Opening it up she saw tan coloured jacket, black trousers, orange tank top and brown boots. Hopefully these would all be fire proof and comfortable.

As the three of them made their way outside Ruby noticed all of them heading towards the Bullhead, all dressed in their cool superhero outfits. It made Ruby feel a little giddy, finally she had some people to help her on her mission. And more importantly, she had some friends, even though they had only known each other for a day she could see the bonds beginning to form between her team. And they would only grow stronger.

"Alright then guys, let's get goi-" Ruby cut herself off because she noticed something, something quite big "Nora, where's your hammer?"

"Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh, I knew I was forgetting something." She said while slapping her hand to her forehead

"Would you like help to look for it?" asked Ren turning to look down at Nora, egger to show he cared about his friend.

"No silly, it will come to me." And Nora then held out her arm over her head and opened her hand

"What?" asked Yang raising an eyebrow, and then they all heard a swooshing sound and a large object flew toward where they were stood. It was Nora's hammer. Landing in her hand Nora smiled a big toothy grin and placed it over her shoulders and laughed to herself as she skipped on to the Bullhead.

"She's-" began Yang in complete disbelief

"-Incredible." Finished Ren wide eyed and completely amazed by what he just saw. They quickly followed her on to the Bullhead and took seats in the cockpit.

"Okay so as you all know we are going to Mountain Glenn, I suggest we come up with a plan." Said Ruby and Yang shot her hand up in the air.

"Ohh, oh oh, I got one." She began and Ruby motioned for her to speak.

"Okay so we get there." She started and Nora leaned forward and nodded, completely enraptured by the story that Yang was going to tell.

"We jump out the Bullhead."

"Yes"

"We crash into the ground showing everyone how awesome we are."

"YEs."

"We demand to see around the super-secret enemy base."

"YES"

"Anyone disagrees we kick their butt and get back in time for a couple of strawberry sunrises."

"YES!"

Ren sighed and shook his head; they needed a different plan, preferably one with less crashing and butt kicking.

"How about you three stay on the Bullhead and I fly down to meet them." Says Ruby in a diplomatic counter argument to a plan they were not doing.

"Boooooo that's boring!" cried Nora, while Yang sat back and crossed her arm's while pouting and muttering "Nora liked my plan."

"Hear me out; if they attack me while I am down there, that is when you two drop down and start to destroy stuff to get their attention, meanwhile Ren sneaks in and gathers as much intel as he can and then we find a way to blow up whatever they are hiding there."

"That's assuming there is something there worth hiding." Pipes up Ren.

"Ohh there will be, Penny is the most advanced system on the planet, she is never wrong and I am willing to bet good money on there being at least one giant robot." Says Ruby

"I'll take that action and raise you fifty giant robots!" Shouts Yang

"One hundred!" chimes in Nora

"That would be a tad bit excessive, but why not." Beeping from the control panel signalled that they had finally reached their destination on what felt like a very short flight. When they looked out of the window to view the area below them they saw abandon buildings and streets with wildlife growing through the cracks in the ground and several trees coming through the centre of most of the buildings. And that was when Ren saw it before Penny managed to pick it up on the sensors, one of the buildings was moving very slightly and turning up towards where they were coming in and part of it seemed to be extending towards the Bullhead.

"HARD RIGHT!" Ren yelled at Penny who managed to dodge to the side as a missile flew past the Bullhead and exploded in the air. The explosion shook the team and knocked some of them over and that was when they realised that they might need to change their plan slightly.

"Okay; new plan." Said Ruby, as she opened up the side of the Bullhead and let the wind come in "ATTACK."

"WE NEED MORE OF A PLAN THAN THAT." Ren yelled back at her

"FINE, WE DO YANGS PLAN AND THEN WORK FROM THERE, NORA, YANG SHOW THEM WHO'S BOSS." Ruby shouted back at her teammates and then they both grinned at each other and Yang leapt out of the Bullhead and dived for the ground, rocketing through a building and turning it in to rubble the moment she impacted it. Nora jumped out and hefted her hammer over her head and brought it down as hard as she could on the missile launcher destroying it in one fell strike. Once the two recovered from the impact; Yang threw the rubble off of her and Nora managed to pull her hammer out of the now destroyed missile launcher, they then that the two noticed they were surrounded by a group of people all wearing dark uniforms and with helmets covering their heads and advanced weapons in their hands, all of which were pointed at them. This might not seem like good luck to many, but to our two heroines, it was a great day as the enemy was focused on them and not their friends, and they got to fight; win-win.

They circled the two women, but none of them moved in to attack them and instead they actually backed off a little bit, but still remained in sight of the two. Leaving the two Heroes more than a little confused, until they heard it; a mechanical clanking was coming right for them, down the street. As the sound got closer they saw that it was a bunch of-

"Beowulfs!" exclaimed Nora happily.

"What?" asked Yang "You've seen these things before?"

"Oh yeah, they used to be everywhere on Remnant years ago, now the only place that I know they are is Hel. But I don't go there that often, only when I need to visit my Grandma, she's so cool."

"Aw well, time to smash." And with that the two women launched themselves towards the (not giant) robots, intent on turning them to scrap and knocking the soldiers into next week.

Meanwhile, back up in the sky Penny had taken the Bullhead to new heights and was going to wait for the signal for when she would be needed to get the team out of Mountain Glenn. Ruby watched the team's heavy hitters dive down towards the ground and looked to Ren and then realised something, how were they going to communicate with each other, yell loudly. No Ruby had a solution to that so she handed Ren a homemade communication device, able to transmit to anywhere in Remnant via the STRQ industries satellite. Nodding in thanks, he accepted the device without question.

"While those two get the attention of the main group, we'll see if we can find where all these guys are coming from." Ruby no longer needed to yell to be heard as Ren would be able to hear her over the communication device perfectly.

"Sounds good, can I have a lift?"

"Sure thing, don't tense Legolas." And with that remark they blasted off out the Bullhead and down towards the battle; they could very clearly see Nora and Yang hard at work, turning what looked to be large (but not giant) robot werewolves into scrap metal and occasionally smacking around several human people as well. Ren could see even from the distance that they were at, the dark outfits and the helmets and visors and he was certain that he knew exactly what kind of people wore those clothes, but the name was escaping him right now. However he was sure that he would be able to find out what they were actually called if he could find one still conscious at the end of the fight.

He did manage to spot a location where the majority of the group appeared to be coming from, this gave Ren reason to believe that was where the new troops were coming from, however at the rate that they were coming out and the force they were bringing with them, Nora and Yang would be overwhelmed by the time he turned eighty. Perhaps they were simply stalling for a chance to escape with whatever they were hiding down in their lair.

That was when the ground opened up where the troops were coming from. It opened up exactly like a trap door and out came a giant metal scorpion, followed by a giant gorilla. Taking a moment to make sure Ren wasn't still asleep he pinched himself. Turns out he was awake and he was just living out a nightmare, however he considered himself fortunate that while the secret enemy base had giant death machines capable of mass destruction, he had two people also capable of mass destruction on his side. He watched as they turned to each other and watched the giant robots charge towards them, they seemed to point at which one they wanted to fight and then Yang jumped up on Nora's hammer and she swung her towards the gorilla as hard as she could sending Yang slamming into his chest and knocking them both over and into another building as it collapsed on top of them. Nora flew up in to the air a little and dropped down as a lightning strike hit her, sending out an arc of electricity towards the werewolves that had surrounded her, short circuiting them and then running towards the giant robot scorpion. That was something he never thought he would have to think to himself in his life.

"Ruby get us over to where those thing came from." Ren said into his communication device

"Good thinking." Replied Ruby's voice in his ear, and then she flew them over to the entrance. They were met with a hail of gunfire, all of which hit Ruby's amour and most of it bounced off. From looking around at the weapons Ruby noticed that most of them were STRQ industries and quite an old model as well. They didn't have the explosive rounds like the bandits had managed to get, they didn't have the electric arcs, but they still fired at a fast rate and had the ability to change between burst, semi and full auto, and the bullets came out a lot faster than most models did. Ruby was luck that she was bullet proof, Ren however was not; so Ruby did the smart thing and dropped him behind cover.

Ren didn't cry out in shock as he was thrown across the room, no matter what Ruby would show in the video latter on. As he hit the ground he turned it into a roll and shot two arrows up into the air, setting of a flash bang that blinded the enemies and then Ren manage to maneuverer his way over to a door that a guard was coming out of, Ren shot an arrow that turned into a net and trapped the guard up against the wall, and then charged through the door as all of the troops in the room were focused on the Iron Reaper.

Speaking of the Iron Reaper she had landed and was now dashing around the place blasting enemies back with controlled energy from her repulsors, filling the hanger with silver light. As she was dashing around she saw that one of the troops lifted up a rocket launcher and fired at her. This caused her to take off into the air and evade it that way, but it turns out it was a heat seeking rocket that would follow her. She wasn't going to leave the hanger otherwise it would send the troops heading to where Ren was going, so she blasted the rocket when it was the furthest away from the guards so that they wouldn't be affected by the blast.

Landing again this time behind the rocket launcher trooper she kicked him with full force sending him flying towards two others who were aiming guns at her taking down three more, subconsciously adding that to her score. It wasn't a completion or anything between them as they hadn't mentioned it before, Ruby just wanted the right to brag latter about how awesome she was. She did wonder how Yang and Nora were doing outside with the giant robots. Just as she thought about the giant robot she felt the ground shake a little bit more and flew up into the air to get a better look at the situation, more sections of the destroyed and abandoned town were opening up and more giant robots were coming out of them, they all seemed to be in the design of a scorpion, Yang might have destroyed the only gorilla robot they had.

Outside with Nora and Yang they had finished with the giant robots almost as soon as when they had come out, when Nora threw Yang she actually went through the chest of the robot and out of the other side, destroying the power source and making the robot useless. Nora hand also finished with hers almost as quickly, she dodged the stab form the tail and smashed the stinger off of it with one swing and then she had ripped the pincer off of the left of the robot and impaled it through the back of the robot while bringing down her hammer and shattering the thing. All in all, they were a little disappointed with the robots and the people that were attacking them, the bullets didn't do much against them except annoy them and any Beowulfs were very quickly destroyed. They had in fact got in to a little completion of who could throw the Beowulf the furthest and the highest. Yang was currently in the lead with the highest and the furthest, but Nora had then hit one up with her hammer and it hadn't come down yet. Yang said that it didn't count as she didn't have a magic hammer, so instead they turned to kicking the robots up into the air and Nora was winning, curtesy of her 'thunder thighs'.

It was then that they noticed the horde of giant robot scorpions charging towards them, grinning at each other Yang jumped up in the air and brought both her hands down as hard as she could on the first one, just as Nora threw her hammer at the one next to Yang turning it into spare parts. They both knew that these robots wouldn't stop them, or even harm them so what was the leader thinking about sending them out to fight them? It was just a waste, and a pretty stupid move.

Ren thought that the leader of this organisation must be quite intelligent, they had managed to distract Ruby by using her own weapons against her, and from what he had seen as he was making his way through the halls they were dragging out every single STRQ industries weapon that they could get their hands on, this would keep Ruby's focus on the destruction of her weapons and away from hacking into their systems and learning what they are up to. With Nora and Yang, it was obvious that they were throwing out wave after wave of fighters to keep them from tearing through the base, and so long as they kept it interesting they would have their attention, as they were both to headstrong to refuse a good fight. Ren knew that he had a job, to find out what he could about this place and nothing was going to stop him from achieving that, no distractions for him.

As he watched a trio of people exit a room he pinned them all to the wall with well-placed arrows, ensuring that they wouldn't be a bother to anyone, Ren might not have superpowers like Nora and Yang or a high tech amour like Ruby, but he doubted that they could make shots like he could, after all his accuracy was one of the few things he brought to the team. There was a reason the BEACON basketball team was undefeated among the government teams, although he suspected he might be banned from the team since he was now with The Hunters.

Ren's keen eyes managed to make out a sign down the hall that read control room, in old Mistralian. Luckily he had read so many texts on the ancient stories to do with the monks in the mountains that managed to achieve such a mastery over their emotions they could also affect the emotions of those around them with a touch. It was a good read, he highly recommended it. Heading in the direction of the control room Ren peeked around the door and noticed four very large men surrounding one woman who was leant over the main computer, and appeared to be downloading information to her scroll.

This confirmed what Ren had already suspected; the leader was stalling the heavy hitters and tech wiz so that they wouldn't get this information and they could escape to a different base, what they had not counted on was him, a person who was very focused on the objective, skilled enough to complete it, and practically immune to distractions all due to his circus and BEACON training as well as the martial arts he devoted his time to.

"Shit, those women are tearing through our machines like there paper." Said the closest guard too Ren; who then made his way into the control room as quickly and quietly as possible.

"They've managed to take down loads of our troops as well, and that's not counting what the Iron Reaper is doing in the hanger." Noted a second.

"We don't need to beat them here." Stated the unknown woman, as she was still leaning over the computer. Ren took a good look at her and noticed that her hair was completely green, a mint colour to be specific, she had a slender build and dark skin. Ren couldn't see her face, but judging from the way that she held herself and the fact that her clothes were made up of white skin tight trousers and a white crop top with two gun holsters on her back, she must have been confident in her appearance and there for have an attractive face.

"We just need to hold them off for a little longer and then we can get out of here." She continued.

Ren wasn't going to wait for that to happen; okay five hostiles, all unaware of his position, one high profile target, this should be fairly simple. His first move was to draw two separate shock arrows and shoot the two on the outside of the line, the high voltage enough to render even the strongest of people unconscious and these people were no different, after crying out in pain they dropped to the floor, but before they could even fall Ren had vaulted over the line of computers he was originally hiding behind and used it as a spring board to drop kick a third guard, who hit his head against the computer the woman was up against and was knocked out cold. The last guard tried to draw his gun on Ren only to have his arms knocked to the side and then Ren punched him across the helmet with a left cross and struck the stomach with a right body shot, and since his hips were in a perfect position he struck with a left round house kick to the head, exactly where he had already struck with the punch, the lack of balance on the guards half meant he was sent crashing over the line of computers and sprawling on to the ground, out for the count. Ren then turned to the woman who was still not facing him even after that display of his combat prowess, or maybe the lack of her guards shamed her so much.

"All that tech and they're useless against a flipping bow and arrow." She muttered, but it was loud enough for Ren to hear it.

"In their defence, they're very bad." He replied.

"Well against the best agent from BEACON they were doomed to fail, I guess. But at least it's not the others. They would have done it even easier." She said offhandedly, finally turning around to face him, Ren found that he was right she was attractive; as seemed to be the theme with evil women. She had blood red eyes that looked right through him and didn't seem to be impressed with whatever she was looking at. She also seemed to know about his past with BEACON, so clearly this organisation was a lot more dangerous than he was lead to believe. And that was when she said the classic line that everyone said to Ren when they first met him.

"I thought you would be taller." Yeah he got it, he was short for a man, but he was still taller than most of the women that he met and this one was no exception. Yet he wasn't as tall as most of his fellow agents back when he was at BEACON, it had never really bothered him until it was brought up by people.

"And you are under arrest."

"You don't have the authority to do that, you left BEACON."

"Citizen's arrest." Ren quipped back with a smirk on his face

"Your funeral." She said as she was quick to draw her pistol and fire off a shot; however Ren had sidestepped and pushed her hand away from him. She used her other hand to draw her second weapon and try to fir off a shot with that one, yet she was met with the same response, Ren was able to manoeuvre himself around where she aimed. She then kicked Ren in the chest forcing them away from each other and opened fire on him as he back-flipped over a table and avoided the shots, while he managed to let off an arrow of his own and knock a gun out of her hands. His second arrow he shot at her when he dived away from the table to try and get a different angle on her, was caught inches away from her shoulder, as it would have injured her greatly, she sent him a coy smile, almost mocking him for his failed effort. Ren noticed this and only had one thing to say in reply.

"Tick, tick, boom."

And that is when the arrow, flashed red once and the woman caught on and threw the arrow across the room, as it flashed red again and then exploded in a blinding light. That if any closer would have blinded and disorientated her massively, but as she threw it away it only shocked her for a fraction of a second, right before she was smacked across the face with Ren's bow, knocking her sideways and sending her stumbling into a wall. She recovered very quickly and was able to duck under his second swing of the bow and come up with a rising elbow to his chin, knocking his head back and forcing them to separate again. The woman was quick to fire her remaining gun at Ren, but he dived behind a table and the shots flied past him. Nocking an arrow he shot towards the wall and managed to ricochet the arrow to disarm the woman's other weapon.

Now that she was disarmed she had no ranged options, this meant that Ren could shoot her without having to duck behind cover, what he didn't count on was her being able to catch both of the arrows. Ren was impressed, the only other person that had managed to catch his arrows was Cinder, and she was one of the most powerful people on the planet, so far this woman had no enhanced abilities but was able to catch the arrows anyway.

"Given the speed you took down my men, I thought you would put up more of a fight."

The computer beeped signalling that the download to the scroll was complete; this alerted the both of them to the screen and caused them to lunge towards. Ren managed to grab the woman's hand before she snatched the scroll up. She retaliated with a strong punch which slammed into his cheek and made him release his hold on her wrist, allowing her to grab the scroll. As she turned to leave the room an arrow stabbed through her hand and made her drop the scroll, a second arrow then shattered the scroll, much to her anger.

"NO!" she yelled and then turned to Ren with fury in her eyes. "You idiot, you don't know what information that had on it!"

"You're right I don't." replied Ren

"Useless, the Iron Reaper would have realised the genius in keeping the scroll intact."

Then the woman's body glowed green for a second and then there were two of her, the second one that had just appeared charged towards Ren, but he wasn't worried about that one and shot an arrow at the woman still standing still. The arrow went straight through her and pinged into the wall, this meant the second woman was the real one. Since she had managed to make her way to Ren without being shot at she had momentum and surprise on her side and she utilized them with expert ability. Performing a flying kick knocking Ren to the ground so hard that his vision blurred; this woman was very strong and her appearance greatly deceived that.

Grabbing one of Ren's pistols from his side while he was dazed on the floor, she aimed it at his head and placed her foot on his back to keep him down.

"Killed by your own gun, shows just how useless you are."

Switching off the safety she was ready to pull the trigger, a blast of silver energy knocked her off of Ren's back and into the wall where she was stood before, dropping the pistol and slumping down to the ground, seemingly out for the count.

"What is good in the hood." Said Ruby as she walked more into the room and looked around at the unconscious guards and bullet holes all over the place.

"Huh, had your own private party, Ren. That's cool." Holding out a hand to him as he was still on the ground she helped him up and back on to his feet. Ren in turn rubbed the side of his head where the woman had kicked him.

"Less of a party. She is stronger than you would think."

"No worries, I've got my amour, I'd like to see her beat me. And you together now."

They both turned back to look at the woman, but she wasn't there and the opened door that then swung closed could only mean that she had managed to escape while Ruby was helping Ren. Ren then made his way over to the scroll he had destroyed and looked down at the parts of it, yes it would have been better to learn from it, but at least it wasn't in enemy hands.

"They managed to get all of their information onto this scroll, but I broke it during the fight. I sup-"

"Perfect!" cried Ruby as she picked up one of the small pieces of the scroll "The main storage part is still intact, this means we will still be able to decode any information that is on the scroll."

"Handy." Said Ren

"BEACON are on their way for clean-up and taking all of the prisoners, and Yang and Nora are almost done outside."

As Ren and Ruby head back outside they notice the sheer destruction of all of the robots that Nora and Yang had thought, not a single one had managed to survive the combined force of the two working together. Currently they were throwing the gorilla head between them waiting for the BEACON agents to show up, they had also managed to gather up all of the troops they had knocked out and left them in a massive pile in the middle of the street. Ren then had an idea that maybe he could integrate one of them in to telling them who their leader. But thought that was best left to the professionals, as his expert area was infiltration.

As the BEACON bullheads came into view Nora and Yang stopped throwing the robot head between them and waited for them to land, loads of BEACON agents got out and immediately started to place hand cuffs on the troops and also start to place them on the ships in groups. Meanwhile Goodwitch walked over to where The Hunters were stood.

"Miss Rose, Nora, MR Ren and … Miss Xaio-Long." Ren didn't miss the way that his name was said with a Mr instead of an agent at the start, it was both relieving and also heart breaking to hear.

"I have to say, this really was the last place I would have expected to find a secret organisation… you handled the situation." And then Goodwich simple walked away from the group and went to go and deal with gathering information from the base and seeing what they could get out of the troops that the woman had left behind to get captured.

"That's a strange way to say thank you." Said Yang breaking the silence over the group

"She never was one to give praise for much, but it is better than when she would just not talk to you after you had done something." Explained Ren as he was the one who knew her the best.

"She reminds me of my mum." Said Nora "In fact I wonder if she is my mum, and has just decided to come to Remnant to keep an eye on me. Ohhhh, Ren you're a spy, lets spy on her and find out, I'll know if she is my mum when we see her take her clothes off, my mum has this birth mark rig-"

"Nora I am confident that she is not your mother, I have known her for a very long time."

"Okay, I'll believe you but I still think it would be a good idea." Said Nora pouting for a second before a big smile took over her face as though she just remembered something.

"SOOOOOOOOOO, looks like there were a lot of GIANT robots. Maybe more than a hundred." Said Nora

"Dammit, there were a lot of giant robot." Agreed Yang.

"So I guess that means I win this so called money; what is it?" asked Nora

"We'll talk about it back at base." Says Ruby as she taps her forearm, and the Bullhead pulls in over their heads. The side door that they all jumped out of opens up and Nora, Yang and Ruby all take this as a cue to either fly up into the Bullhead or jump up into the Bullhead. Ren just waits for a second for them to realise that they have left him on the ground, but it doesn't look like they are going to notice, so he takes out a rope arrow and shoots it up and manages to get it to stab into the side of the Bullhead, he then uses this to pull himself up at a high speed and swings into the Bullhead as the three, girls all look at him with various different expressions; Nora with amazement, Ruby with embarrassment and Yang apologetically.

"Just remember, I can't do what you guys can." Says Ren calmly, even though on the inside he is anything but calm. True he has trained for hard missions, pushing his body to the limits and making sure that he was in tip top condition, but compared to these girls and compared to what he is going to face out there with them, he was almost dead weight. Almost everything he brought to the team someone else brought more, true his accuracy was unmatched and he doubted that even Ruby's amour could compare. But that was it, earlier when he had spotted the missile coming in to the Bullhead, the explosion would have only affected him the others would have survived. When he met up with the woman in the control room, he had to engage like that, the others would have had a much easier time than he did.

Truth be told Ren wasn't really sure if he did belong on this team, as far as he was concerned he was ordinary, and when you compare that to the others, he was just going to slow them down. He already had to be saved by Ruby once in this battle, and in the fight against Cinder, he was certain that the others saved him a lot of times when they could have been more focused on her. Ren should just go back to BEACON, at least there he wouldn't hold anyone back.

Nora skipped over to him and sat down next to him and began to tell him all about the fighting outside, about how she managed to destroy so many robot, how her and Yang had performed some awesome team moves, while he was being the super sneaky spy, and how they had a little competition of who could throw the robot the furthest or highest. Ren listens to it all and tells her his version of events; how he got past everyone because they were all focused on the big threats you guys had, how he took down a total of eight guys and barely held his own against the leader, needing to be saved by Ruby.

After hearing all of this and thinking about it for the whole trip, Ruby waited until they had landed in the mansion and everyone had got off of the Bullhead, Ren was leading the group back to the door when Ruby called out to him.

"Wait." This caused everyone to turn towards her, and she forced her amour mask to retract from her head so that she could look him in the eye when she said the next bit.

"Ren, I think you might be too hard on yourself." Said Ruby slowly and making sure to look in his eyes, something she always had trouble doing.

Ren sighed. He should have known they would try to make him feel better, they were good people after all.

"You don't have to do this Ruby… I'm not at your level… I should have known." Said Ren softly, almost a whisper.

"NOPE." Replied Ruby with unwavering confidence.

"Nope?" questioned Ren as he was now extremely confused by what she was getting at.

"You stayed true to the mission! While we were all focused on breaking robots or destroying weapons, you went and got the information we needed!" Ruby exclaimed excitedly.

"You got there to save me, you would have got the information as well. Probably without destroying it."

"No I wouldn't, she would have been long gone by the time I got there if you hadn't fought her. Then we wouldn't have anything. You were the only one who had the mission on their mind, the only one who was thinking of the team, as far as I am concerned you are the reason that we won. And not just this fight, if you didn't distract Cinder and put her off with your arrows and bullets and cool tricks, then she would have worn us down and the world would be in ruins because of her."

"Yeah you were arrow-right, in that fight. Really on target. So you took a couple of nocks, and got strung along a bit. Don't be cross-bow."

"Ignore everything that Yang just said, she does not speak for us."

"I thought they were good." Yang muttered as it was clear she was the only comedic genius between the four of them.

"Yeah Ren you were awesome, and who cares if you don't have any powers like us, or are 'ordinary', my mum once read me a story of a normal man who gave everything that he had and used it to take from those who were so selfish and give that to those who had nothing, he was a hero of the people and he didn't have any powers. Just a bow and arrow, and that is when she told me the best quote ever 'The true heroes are not those who are already extraordinary; Heroes are ordinary people who make themselves extraordinary.' And that is you, you are a hero Ren. Whether you like it or not.

"And I am still the strongest person on Remnant because I threw the robot head the highest!" finished Nora and placing her hands on her hips, adopting a smug look and nodding slightly as though to a beat of a crowd chanting, clearly this was all going on inside her head and it made Ren crack a small smile, this woman- not this goddess was truly something… different, and different in a very good way.

"NO YOU DIDN'T!" shouts Yang her eyes turning red for a second "You cheated and used your hammer!"

"Wanna rematch 'Best Girl'" mocked Nora, and if she knew how to use air quotations, that would have been the perfect time, sadly however she didn't.

"Bring it on 'thunder thighs'" Yang on the other hand did know how to use air quotations.

They then both charged inside, most likely to find a table as they had demanded at some point to arm wrestle each other and this would be the perfect time to do so. Ruby's eyes widened comically and then she sprinted after them shouting about how they needed to be careful of her furniture and not break anything. This left Ren outside to think on what they said.

They were right, he was the only one who was focused on the mission, and If Ruby did get there, then the woman would have already been long gone and the information would have been lost to them. They were also correct about the fight with Cinder; they did need her to be distracted for a couple of moments as she was so strong a fighter that eventually she would have worn them down and defeated them, and the little that he did do in the fight was obviously enough to change the outcome significantly.

Yang despite her terrible puns and poor comedy, clearly meant it and considered him to be valuable, even though she could have said it better than some random jokes about archery. But what had really pick up his mood had been Nora; the story that she told was one that his mother and father had often told to him, and Ren often believed it to be his father the story was about, because he was the best hunter the village had, always able to hit the animals in the right place to kill them without having them suffer. He provided for everyone and helps those less fortunate, he was Ren's hero. He was someone who made themselves extraordinary instead of just being ordinary. Just like the man in Nora's story, perhaps when she first saw him using the bow and arrow against Cinder she thought that he was the man she had heard about. But he couldn't be that man, that was a legend and he wasn't going to be the second legend, he was going to be the first of his own making. He was going to make himself extra ordinary and he had just the people to help him do that. He just hoped that his parents would be proud of him and what he was going to do.

Ren ran after his team, a small smile on his face.

But in doing so he didn't notice that in the small pond next to the entrance, two beautiful lotus flowers had moved a lot closer together, finally at peace.

* * *

And that's a wrap. Hope you enjoyed, there will be more to come, sadly there won't be much of an update schedule, as I am currently putting them out when I finish. I have however written down how I want the story to go, so don't worry about me losing the plot.

pardon the pun (Just kidding I love puns)

next chapter brings in several new characters and you can guess who they are.


	3. Downtime?

Chapter three: Downtime?

Two days after they had fought in the enemy base, Ruby and Ren were having some down time in the mansion, meanwhile Nora and Yang were on a different planet, as the arm wrestle had lasted for over two hours so they had to settle their argument in a different way; to see who could defeat the most frost giant monsters. They had been gone for most of the day and probably would be gone for the rest of the day, as well since Nora said it was going to be a massive battle as they had been moving in on the villages and destroying loads of people's homes, forcing them to seek shelter in Valkyrie. And according to Nora, her father was not happy about that so he asked for her to fight them back, and she saw the chance to bring Yang with her.

This left Ren and Ruby together in the mansion, and after Ren had done his morning exercises and gotten his tea, not necessarily in that order as tea was the most important thing in the morning, he stopped by the meeting room where Penny had been busy decoding the scrolls data for the past two days. Apparently she had encountered a lot more resistance than she thought she would, and as such Penny had only managed to unscramble forty percent of the data, but it was all broken up and made no sense, so they would have to wait for the rest to be unscrambled before they could do anything.

Taking a quick look Ren saw that it had now increased to forty five percent since they had been sleeping, this meant that if he wanted to wait, then he would be in the room for the next two days at best. He asked Penny to notify them the moment the data was decrypted so that they could start combing through it to see what they could find out about the mystery woman and her organisation.

Ren passes the laboratory and notices that Ruby is in their performing maintenance on her suit, while also working on a different project behind her at the same time, Ren decided to see if she needs a hand with anything before he goes to the gym and does some target practice and then some work on his arrows. Fortunately Ruby had given them all access to her laboratory; all they needed to do was place their palm on the scanner and it would grant them entrance.

"Morning Ruby, are you well today." Asks Ren in greeting, doing his best to not startle the younger woman and cause her to mess up whatever she is doing.

"Hey Ren, I'm a little worked up I guess, my amour needs a check-up and I am also working on the energy source problem." Replies Ruby as she is still tinkering away at the devices while maintaining the conversation with Ren.

"Is that energy for your heart, or for your amour?" Ren questions as he is a little confused, since they are the same thing.

"Actually it's energy for the world, Dust is a finite resource, we can't rely on it forever and if we keep digging down deeper and deeper, we could destroy our lands for good. The Schnee dust company doesn't seem to realise this, and have often spoken out against my work, they were some of the people who were unhappiest when I recalled all my weapons and started working on energy, prosthetics, medicine, and transport."

"If it helps they aren't the smartest person on Remnant, you are, so you are doing what is best for the world." Said Ren taking a seat and watching Ruby juggle her two jobs, unsure of how to help as this was way out of his skill book.

"It's just hard; I don't know how I am supposed to do both." Ruby admitted, she was slightly scared that nobody could figure this problem out, and then the world would run out of dust and be plunged into the dark ages again.

"Don't you have a company of scientists that can help you out? You are allowed to share your work load."

"I shouldn't have to ask for help." Muttered Ruby softly, she was Ruby Rose the smartest person on the planet, a prodigy in technology, creator of the greatest AI in the world and able to escape a cave of maniacs in an indestructible amour built from nothing.

"You saved my life and helped me; sometimes you just need help, regardless of if you ask." Said Ren with what he hoped was a small comforting smile on his face.

"I guess you are right, this isn't just my problem and I could use some time on my amour, hey I could always build you some amour!" Exclaims Ruby

"Then maybe I could throw you across the room." Said Ren dryly

"DROPPED! I dropped you behind cover!" Ruby yelled embarrassed at remembering what happened two days ago.

"Of course you didn't." and with that Ren got up and walked out of the lab, going back to his room to grab his bow and arrows and practice some advanced shots, Penny had managed to create multiple different targets for Ren to try hitting when she learnt of his abilities and deadeye. So far the programs had been very intuitive and Penny had taken to timing Ren and also adding points, while this made it more like a game than training, it still pushed Ren to keep trying harder and harder to achieve the best that he could.

Ruby continued to work on her amour and asked Penny to send all of her data and plans over to her team at STRQ industries so that they can work with what she already had. After the battle she should have more options to incapacitate enemies instead of destroy weapons, since people would be using the weapons. They disruptor explosives were great, but they required a few seconds to aim, and in the middle of a fire fight she might not have those few seconds that she needs. So she decided to add in sonic blasts, Tasers, trip wires and rubber bullets as they would cause damage but not kill anyone. This would make her able to take on more people without having to resort to lowering her repluslor out-put. She still kept in the missiles, flares, and emergency explosive as she couldn't have people stealing her amour and using it against her friends. That is why she also added in a shut down if anyone tried to interfere with her amour remotely.

As she was modifying the sonic blasts to configure to the right amount of decibels to affect a human, but not destroy their ear drums, Penny notified her that she was receiving a call from a secure line at BEACON. She could only guess that it was Ozpin calling to ask her to reconsider joining up to BEACON.

"Ah Miss Rose, it is good to see you. I heard you and your team managed to impress Deputy Director Agent Goodwitch that is a hard task to do." Clearly he was buttering her up to make the conversation go a lot smoother for him, that dastardly man, he might even bring out the cookies, then she would know he was pulling out all the stops.

"Alas this is not a social call, I require you assistance." Okay not how she thought this would go, but if it is anything to do with working for them she is out.

"A person of great interest is attempting to leave BEACON, and that cannot be allowed I need your help to stop them."

"No problem." Dammit, why couldn't I be meaner? Curse my helpfulness.

"Excellent, please do hurry up, they might hurt several agents in the process of their escape and I would rather avoid tha can." And then the call ended, with Ruby wondering why Ozpin would call her over Ren, as he was the former BEACON agent. Either way she would need Ren's help as this prisoner sounded pretty dangerous if he could hurt several agents. Ruby asked Penny to tell Ren that they needed to get to BEACON as soon as they could and she stepped into her amour.

"It was time to work for a-"

"RUBY, Penny just told me about the mission, I'm ready when you are." Said Ren standing there in his full combat gear and bow at the ready.

"Rennnnn, I was in the middle of a cool catch phrase." Whined Ruby as she sighed dramatically.

"Continue, please."

"No the moments ruined, I hope you are happy." Said Ruby accusingly as she pointed her finger right at his nose.

"Thank you. I hope you are happy as well, you are my friend." Replied Ren as he bowed his head forward to show his respect for his friend. Ruby silently cursed at this, as he was being too nice making it difficult to be angry at him.

"Sarcasm Ren, sarcasm. Let's just get to the Bullhead."

Ten minutes earlier

"A good man"

" **A promise is a promise."**

KABOOM

SPLASH

Cold

Cold

Cold…

Warm?

The doctors were moving around the lab as they had been for the last two days, going around an checking the lamps, adjusting the angle they were aimed at. Upping the temperature when they needed it to be done, and checking on the heart rate and blood pressure of the subject, currently he was in a coma and had only just been completely thawed out of the ice.

In truth the doctors were surprised that he was even able to survive the freezing cold water off the coast of Atlas where he had been discovered in a routine inspection by the military. They had discovered a life form that was stuck inside of the ice and upon investigating they discovered who it was. The right to have him be unfrozen here in Vale had taken a good couple of hours as General Ironwood was adamant on keeping him in Atlas, but the council eventually decided that Vale was the best place as he was born just outside of the kingdom and it would be the closest to his home.

Now that he was out of the ice and just in the coma, the plan was to place him in a secure room and wait until he was awake so that the Director could gently introduce himself and help him migrate back into the world and answer any questions that he might have. Like the scientist said, that was the plan. However the thing about BEACON was, nothing ever went accordingly to plan and it was best to just improvise.

"I can't believe how quickly he is recovering."

"This might be me being a bit ignorant here, but who is he?"

"Seriously? Did you not learn about the great war in school boy?"

"No the teacher didn't see the point as it had already happened and it was best to forget about it."

"You ever hear the quote; those who forget history are doomed to repeat it?"

"I said that to him, but he sent me to the head teacher's office for talking back."

"What a snowflake. Anyway, this man is the reason that war ended peacefully."

"I thought it was the Vytal agreement."

"Yeah and this man made sure it happened, he was out there fighting on the front lines, made sure that we advanced and took down countless of Mistrals best fighters and what's even better, he did it all without killing a single person, I know a lot of soldiers who don't regret taking a life to protect others, but I know even more that wish they had managed to find another way. Then there is another story, there was a rocket headed to the island of Vytal and it would have whipped out everyone there and ruined every chance of peace, but this man… He jumped on the rocket and gave his life without a second thought. He gave his today so we could have our tomorrow."

"Woah, I had no idea…"

"Not many people know his name these days; they just know someone stopped a rocket. Hell even that part I being forgotten and pretty much everything this man did. Eventually no-one will remember his name."

"What is his name?"

"Jaune Arc, or as he is otherwise known as; Captain Vale."

That is when Jaune opened his eyes for the first time in sixty years, and was greeted by orange lights all pointed down at him, he could hear voices around him saying something about heart rate and brain activity. Maybe it was Raven and Tai arguing over his vitals again, he must have hurt himself in a mission again, Summer wasn't going to let him hear the end of it now. Maybe Qrow will be willing to admit to actually been drinking all this time and take some of the force of her outrage, oh who was he kidding that was about as likely as Captain Ozpin and Tuckson agreeing on who won the last game of cards.

Jaune blinked a couple of more times and wiggled his toes and began to flex his fingers to make sure he still had them, and to his delight he did. This meant that he would be able to get up soon, even though he would be forced to rest for the rest of the day, but they had a war to finish, and they were close to. One last push, then he could finally go back home to his family, maybe meet a nice girl and live a normal life just like his parents wanted.

Just then Jaune's view was obstructed with a person in a white coat looming over him and fiddling around with his chest. That was when he realised he wasn't wearing his amour and his gauntlets and greaves had been removed as well. He also noticed that this person wasn't a member of STRQ industries as they never wore white coats when dressing his wounds, nor was he Captain Ozpin who hated hospitals and everything to do with them and Tuckson never came to check on him when he was injured, he preferred to just by him a beer.

That meant this man was a stranger and that made Jaune nervous, he might be extremely exhausted, but he would still fight to the end no matter what. He just hoped this man wouldn't say or do anything strange. Jaune tried to ask who he was, but it had obviously been a while since he had used his voice so instead it just came out a rasping noise, that managed to alert the man to his recently gained consciousness.

"Ahhh, ouuu…" tried Jaune

"He's awake, prepare the serum, let's send him back into sleep." Not good, not good at all, this clearly wasn't a friendly space and Jaune needed to get out, and he needed to get out now. So he reached out as fast as he could, which given he had probably not been active for maybe a day or two was still quite fast. Grabbing the man's coat he pulled him in really close and threw him over the table he was laying on and he heard him crash into the ground, startling the others in the room.

Another pair of hands then grabbed onto Jaune's shoulders as he tried to sit up and began to force him back down, but Jaune thrust his head forward to where he felt the person was and the hands released him very quickly. Once he was finally sat up straight, he swung his legs around and blinked a couple more times and noticed that there were still three more people in the white coats, one of which was talking quickly into his hand? That was a strange sight to see, but Jaune placed his feet on the ground and stood strong against them, maybe for the first time in two days, but now that he was running on his adrenaline he was ready.

The shortest of the three approached him with a needle in his hands and tried to talk to him, but Jaune shut out his voice and stumbled forward and knocked the needle out of his hands and using a Judo throw that Tuckson had taught him, flipped the man over his shoulder and onto the floor. The white coat man who wasn't talking into his hand stepped forward to help, but Jaune kicked him back against the wall and he slide down groaning and holding his chest. The last one turned and ran out of the room, which was lucky for Jaune as the kick had really made him dizzy and he threw up on the floor and fell to his hands and knees.

The door then opened again and two dark figures came in, and they walked with a lot more confidence than the white coat guys did, but when Jaune say the dark clothes, he immediately thought about the Deathstalkers and their leader Dr Watts, and he was filled with rage, he was the doctor's prisoner, well not for long. When he felt hands on his back and being pulled up by his shirt he went with it and swung his fist up and struck the man in the chin with his left hand, and then using the same hand to grab the front of his shirt and pull him forward into a right cross in the face, with as much strength as he could muster, dropping him instantly. The second dark figure, that Jaune was convinced were Deathstalkers, stepped forward and tackled Jaune around the waist forcing him to stumble back and hit the wall, as he was still trying to get his footing and find his balance. The Deathstalker then punched Jaune in the kidneys, which hurt a little so Jaune retaliated by kneeing him in the face as hard as he could and holding the Deathstalker by the sides and throwing him up towards the ceiling where he broke a light and then slammed into the floor, out cold.

Taking a breath before he did anything else Jaune shifted his way over to the door and leant against the door frame and checked out the hall way, it seemed as though there were green lights headed in one direction and red lights coming from under some of the other doors and around them. Trying a red door Jaune discovered it was locked, but when he followed a green light he noticed it lead to a green door, which was unlocked, so green was good.

Walking through the green door, Jaune discovered that he was in the middle of a large glass building with people in suits all around him and some of them wearing the same dark uniform as the two Deathstalkers he fought a couple of seconds ago, he also spotted the last person in the white coat talking with a stunningly beautiful blonde woman and a crazy looking green who was holding a cup of coffee, or tea or something like that, hell it could have been orange juice for all Jaune knew, but that didn't matter, he just wanted to leave and they were in his way. They quickly noticed him as he was the most under-dressed person in the glass place thingy, just standing their wearing a white t-shirt and some jogging bottoms, he didn't have any socks or shoes on and it didn't look like his favourite hoodie was around here either.

The blonde woman made a hand motion and everyone that was wearing a suit quickly left the area and then she was surrounded by five people wearing the Deathstalker dark uniform, although it looked a little bit more streamlined than he remembered, may be they changed it in the two days he was out of it. She then pointed at him and spoke with a commanding voice, it was one of those voices that you didn't need to raise to be heard across the room, because nobody would be stupid enough to talk over this woman.

"Captain Arc, stand down now." She commanded, and Jaune took a breath and analysed his odds, none of them had any ranged weapons and they didn't have anything on them other than those batons which would hurt, but not as much as what he could put behind a punch, so he had strength and speed on his side, they had numbers, and they hadn't just woken up.

"I'm…le…ving…ow" Jaune tried to croak out but it was hard to as his voice still hadn't returned to him, but he still had actions, and they spoke a lot louder than words.

Jaune walked forward towards what he hoped was the door as it had a handle on it, the blonde woman was quick to send in two of the Deathstalkers to intercept him in the way; the one on his left swung his baton while the one on the right opted to stay back a little and wait for an opening, which was smart on her behalf. Jaune stepped into the swing and pulled the man's arm into his body and again used a judo move from Tuckson flipped the man over his body and on to the ground, he then pulled the man's arm up and dislocated it from his shoulder, it wouldn't knock him down but he wouldn't want to get up after that if he was smart. With his back turned to the other Deathstalker, she did exactly what Jaune hoped she did and swung in a downwards arc, which missed Jaune and instead hit her fellow Deathstalker in the arm, causing more pain. Jaune stepped in and then struck with a left jab around her face, grabbed her by the back of her shirt and kneed her in the stomach before throwing her towards the door he had come through.

"S…ry." He managed to almost say, as he hated hitting women, it didn't feel right in anyway and he could imagine the disappointment radiating off his mum and his sisters. But he wasn't going to stand there and take it, so the most he could do was react and say sorry, or try to say sorry.

Turning back to the remaining Deathstalkers, Jaune noticed that the woman was very upset and quite possibly seething with anger right now. She then sent in the remaining three Deathstalkers and Jaune could see that they were all men, so he wouldn't have to worry about hurting them too badly.

It looks like they were not going to wait for one another to get taken out and were going to attack all together to see if that could over whelm Jaune, it wasn't going to work as he could see that plan coming in from a mile away and knew exactly where to step, they all held the batons in their right hands, which meant he was going to be using his left arm to deflect and grab while his right hand was going to be doing most of the striking. The first Deathstalker to strike him, attacked with a fast downward arc with his right, so Jaune stepped into the using his left arm to direct the blow away from him and make sure that he was left open, allowing Jaune to deliver a right cross to the face and send the Deathstalker past him, the momentum from the downward strike and the punch sending him rolling on the floor. The next two Deathstalkers swing at the same time, one with an outside right swing and the other with an inside swing. Jaune blocks the inside swing with his right arm and the outside with his left, he then grabs the man's forearm with his left and pulls him into a head butt, while side kicking the other man in the ribs, forcing him away from the two. Leaving Jaune's right arm free to strike the man across the face, bringing both hands to the man's forearm, controlling the weapon and rotating his arm so that he was bent over, Jaune then left front kicked his ribs and pulled on his arm, dislocating it from his shoulder and possibly cracking some ribs as well; that makes three down, two to go.

Speaking of which, the first man had got back up and ran at Jaune as fast as he could, a challenge which Jaune met head on, shoulder barging the man to the ground, once again sending him sprawling to the floor, this time he smacked into a desk and didn't get back up after that. Now it was just one to go, and the man did something very stupid which was throw his only weapon at Jaune, it was a good throw and would have hit him if Jaune didn't catch him and throw it back as he ran at him, just with more force, hitting him hard enough in the head to knock him out before he fell to the ground, this just left the Blonde woman and the crazy haired man. The blonde woman, instead of stepping forward to fight him hand to hand like the others, drew a pistol that she had obviously kept hidden from Jaune's view and took aim, this left him with the option to dive for cover, and as he did he grabbed one of the batons that the Deathstalkers had dropped. The blonde woman didn't seem to be firing bullets, but darts instead; they probably intended for him to go back on to the table to experiment on him some more. That wasn't going to happen, so Jaune threw the baton as hard as he could at her, and it moved to quickly for her to dodge it and smacked her in the chest sending her tumbling into the man, as he sprinted for the glass door and smashed through it he shouted out a sorry in his croaky voice and ran as fast as he could away from the building, even though the glass on the floor had really cut his feet.

The pain didn't matter he had to keep going even though the pace that he was running was quite slow compared to what he could actually get up to, he was still going quite a bit faster than anyone he knew could run. As his feet pitter-pattered across the cobblestone leaving drips of blood, he heard a noise above him and saw that a shadow, that was not his was slowly getting larger, this meant that something was falling towards him, so he dive rolled out of the way to the left and came up on his knees ready to face whoever it was.

He didn't quite get the chance to as a searing pain stabbed into his shoulder, and when he took a look he noticed that it was an arrow lodged in there. This guy had shot him with an arrow, the Deathstalkers were getting creative, and he would give them that as he did use a shield to fight his battles, so who was he to judge. Looking up from his shoulder he noticed that his attacker was a male, with long dark hair that went down to his mid back, he wore a Mistrailian outfit with nothing on his shoulders, but purple arm bracers that went up to his mid bicep, he was clearly in shape and looked dead into Jaune's eyes with an unreadable expression. He held a bow in his left hand and looked ready to draw another arrow with his right.

"Only warning, stand down."

"That's… not… an… option…" Breathed out Jaune, finally able to speak out proper words, even if he had to space them out in-between, however pleased he was with this, the new man didn't look so happy with his statement and drew and shot another arrow at him. Now Jaune wasn't so delirious as to try and catch the arrow, so he just rolled forward underneath the arrow. This was then met with a downward strike with the bow which smacked him in the head, and a front kick to his chest. This guy was fast and with Jaune being at a disadvantage due to not having his shield. So that meant he would have to play this differently, fight to run away and get back to his friends. Jaune stood up fully and sidestepped the next arrow that flew towards him, and got in close using both of his hands to block the next strike with the bow that hit his forearms, he then ripped the bow out of the man's grip, and it was subtle but Jaune noticed a look of shock pass through his eyes, he was not expecting someone that strong. Now that they were on equal footing the man struck out with a palm thrust to his chest and then a kick to his knee, following up with a roundhouse elbow to the temple. This fight was going nowhere, and Jaune was starting to get even more tired than he was before, when the ninja Deathstalker attacked with a rising front kick, most likely to his groin, but Jaune blocked it with a cross of his forearms, he then gripped the ninja Deathstalkers leg and raised it up and swept the other leg out from under him sending him crashing into the ground, it would hurt for a second but it wouldn't do anything permanent or lasting to him, but Jaune didn't care he took off in a full sprint away from him, and he wasn't likely to catch up to him.

That was when the strangest thing happened, another shadow was getting smaller and this time Jaune noticed it was going to land where he would be, so he just stopped running for a second. The thing that landed was a robot, but a robot in the shape of a short woman, with a cape. That was strange, clearly Doctor Watts was trying to mess with the allies' heads and make them lose their trains of thoughts by distracting them. It almost worked on Jaune almost, but he just wanted to leave and nobody seemed to understand that getting in his way was a very bad idea, and even though this might have been a woman he was done holding back.

"Stop right there, you are un-" began the robot thing, it even sounded like a female's voice, all be it a heavily robotic one, however Jaune charged at it and tackled it to the floor and punched it in the face several times, and then turned it over, grabbed a rock and smashed it on its head and then started running again, he wasn't in the mood for this, he just wanted to get out of here and get back to his friends. That was when he came across a statue in the middle of a fountain, it had a figure that was raising a shield above his head, he wore similar amour to what Jaune usually wore and even the shield was exactly the same, shame shape and symbol. The only difference was the size of the person and the shield compared to Jaune, they were a lot bigger than he was, but it couldn't be him, this was a Deathstalker base, so why would they have a statue of him? It doesn't make any sense. Looking at the base of the statue briefly Jaune also noticed that it had his name written on it in full;

Captain Jaune Arc, the hero of Vale.

Saviour of Remnant.

That was crazy, he must be more tired than he thought, or maybe that blonde woman had hit him with the dart earlier and he was hallucinating things, or that arrow the ninja Deathstalker had shot him with had drugged him and he was hallucinating from that. Either way he needed to get out of there, so he turned away from the statue and ran towards the exit to the entire courtyard, which happened to be the edge of a cliff, he looked around and planed hi route down to the ground before jumping off and disappearing into the forest heading towards the city he noticed in the distance.

Back with Ruby and Ren they were both in a little bit of shock, they weren't hurt as when the blonde man had tripped Ren he had rolled with his fall and come up standing near where his bow was, but when he took aim the man was already about one hundred meters away from him and Ren was shocked that someone could move that fast on land. Ruby wasn't hurt either she was stunned however that a person could just tackle her amour like that and make her look a little stupid really, the punches and the rock had done nothing to her amour, but she was still shaken up inside the amour. He was very strong and watching him run away and fight with Ren showed that he was also very quick and could take a few hits and still keep going. This was going to be a little bit harder than she previously thought, but at least she would get a chance to test out all of her non-lethal weapons in the amour.

Currently Ruby and Ren were going to meet with Ozpin to see if he was going to tell them more about the mystery blonde man or not. They hoped that he would be truthful and tell them everything he knew, so that this way he could be apprehended a lot more efficiently and without endangering people's lives.

As they met back up they wordlessly headed towards where the glass lobby where the blonde man had come from, on the way there they saw Goodwitch waiting for them outside the building, her hair had fallen out of her bun and there were several agents being carried on stretchers and some more cleaning up the lobby. This lead to a very confusing sight when Yang and Nora turned up, as Yang landed with a loud thud and sending up dust around her before she head over to her sister and asked what was going on, as they stopped by the mansion, but Penny told them they were here, and while Ruby brought Yang up to speed, Nora then landed after Yang, but with a lot less impact on the ground, she immediately skipped over to Ren and asked if he was okay, what he had for breakfast, if he missed her and what were pancakes as she knew what a pan was and wondered if mortals made them into cakes.

The constant questions were a little bit overwhelming for Ren all of a sudden, but he answered all of them honestly.

"I am, porridge, yes and it is a type of breakfast."

"You really missed me?" asked Nora innocently

"Yes, you usually wake up the same time as me. I like our morning routine."

"Bow-chikka-bow-wow" says Yang while winking at Nora, and that forces Nora to back away from Ren a little, she had been victim to Yang and her teasing for almost a whole cycle on Jötunheimr, and she didn't want that to continue for when they were on Remnant.

"Miss Xaio-Long, if you could take more care with your landing that would be much appreciated, or I will start to bill you for damages."

"Um sure thing Miss Goodwitch, sorry?" Said Yang sheepishly avoiding her gaze

"Very well, if you come this way the Director is waiting for you." Said Goodwitch as she lead them in to the lobby and straight to the elevator, walking past the agents who were either getting medical attention or cleaning up the mess.

"Whoa, this guy really did a number on your agents. What kind of prisoner is he?" asked Yang as they looked around at the lobby.

"The director will explain everything."

The ride up to the office was a tense one as nobody was saying anything; Ren was nervous as this would be the first time he would be face to face with his boss after he left, Ruby was curious as she wanted to know more about this mystery man, Nora was intrigued by the lift as on Valkyire they only had stairs and didn't have this contraption, Yang was scared as this was the man who could decide if she would be hunted by the Atlas military or left alone. Glynda Goodwitch meanwhile was preparing for a headache that this would cause, and she was certain that Director Ozpin would be very little help in this situation and most likely do the most amusing option possible.

As the doors opened up the five were greeted by Ozpin facing out overlooking the courtyard and out to the city of Vale. He didn't verbally acknowledge them, but he did turn and take a seat behind his desk, and gesture to the four seats in-front of his desk. They all took their seats and waited for Ozpin to begin talking, at first he just looked at the weapons that Ren and Nora had brought with them and the amour that Ruby was still wearing, even though she had made sure that the helmet plat was retracted. He might have wanted to say something, but thought against it.

"I am glad you all have come." Began Ozpin "This will be a strange request and possible a challenging opponent."

"Yeah your agents looked flattened." Said Yang, this earned her a sharp glare from Goodwitch which shut her up quickly, she might be able to bench a bus, but that glare was scary.

"Yes, compared to this man, my agents were much out of their depth. They performed admirably, but ultimately this is an opponent with a lot more skill."

"Who is he?" asks Ruby

"His name is Jaune Arc." Ozpin let that sink in for a second to see if anybody recognised the name and the history behind it. Ren was the first person to grasp the level of severity in the situation and why this might be challenging mission for them. Ruby and Yang glanced at each other as the name was familiar to them, but they couldn't place where they knew it from. Nora bounced in her seat as she knew exactly where the name was from.

"Oh, oh, oh that's the name on the statue. The man with the shield and amour!" she exclaimed happily, that jogged Ruby and Yang's memory making them realise just who this person was.

"Are you saying, we got our butts kicked by Captain Vale?" asked Ruby

"From what I saw there wasn't that much 'Butt Kicking', but yes, that would be correct." Answered Ozpin

"The war hero?" questioned Yang

"Yes."

"The man responsible for the peace treat being completed." Added in Ren

"Indeed."

"The very same person that liberated over three hundred people from Haven when it was a prison."

"The very same man."

"So what so great about him?" asked Nora "I mean that all sound heroic and all, but you make it sound as though everything he did was spectacular."

"This man shaped the history of the planet, you see Nora; sixty years ago the world was at war and lots and lots of people died. This was also the time where monster roamed the land, and not just the Grimm, these were human monster called the Deathstalkers. They took their name from the monster and committed terrible acts, but Jaune took it upon himself to wage war against them, and he succeeded. With only a handful of people this man toppled hundreds of enemy soldiers, and base's all while fighting the so called Grimm, and he kept going no matter how hard it got, that's what makes him a legend." Explained Ren to Nora, who was now a lot more interested in this Jaune guy, if he really was this legendary hero, she wondered why more people on Remnant didn't talk about him more, on Valkyrie people still talked about her grandfather and his battles, and that was fifth-teen thousand years ago, sixty years was nothing compared to that.

"But the real question is how he is here right now, and how he is still young." Asks Ren turning back to Ozpin in confusion

"After he fell from the rocket, he was presumed to be dead and claimed by the sea and whatever lay in her depths. This wasn't true, he had actually been frozen and had joined the Atlas coatline, he was found in one of their military patrols. You can imagine the amount of hoops I had to jump through to get him back to Vale. Can't you Miss Xaio-Long?"

"Thank you." Said Yang softly as she realised she hadn't said that the first time and now realised that one of the reasons General Ironwood hadn't already kicked down the mansion doors was probably because of Ozpin. The other reason was because of Ruby and the pull she had with the military and influence in the world.

"It wasn't easy, but we managed to get him back here. The plan was to wake him gently and have myself talk to him, he knew my father very well, just as he knew your parents Miss Rose and Miss Xaio-Long. I thought it would help him if he could then be brought back in to his wor-"

"It's not his world anymore." Said Nora sadly "He has been away for too long, and when you come back after a long time away, you find that things have changed. Things you didn't even imagine were possible have happened, and it hurts you more than anything."

No one said anything about that, because if anyone in the room knew life, it would be a goddess who had already lived for a thousand years, and would live for several thousand more to come. She knew the heartache of change and being forgotten.

"This is why I think it is best if you go, together and bring him back. BEACON can help him, we can bring him up to speed and then he can start to serve again, just as he did all those years ago."

Everyone took a minute to process this; Nora felt sad for this man, she knew exactly what he was going through right now and she knew how much it was going to hurt him when he found out the truth, she just hoped he had the strength of character to keep going. Ren was just amazed that the man had managed to survive everything he had been through, it was true that they needed to help him and finding him was the first step, but was BEACON really the best place for him? He might not want to serve anymore. Yang was more eager to find this man, he could tell her stories about her father when he was young and foolish, when uncle Qrow and aunt Summer were with him and how they all grew together, he might even be able to tell her about her mother and why she changed. She also knew what it was like to wake up and be at the mercy of scientists, and she knew that above all else this man was scared; he needed some friends right now. Ruby didn't know what to think, this was something she never thought she would have to deal with, but someone needed help. It wasn't the typical help, this would take a long time to help this man, but she knew one thing; BEACON was not the place for this man, almost everything Ozpin said was right, he did need to be brought back and taken in to be looked after and learn about the changes, but then the choice was up to him if he wanted to serve or if he wanted to be left alone.

"We will find him." Said Ruby as she broke the silence and turned everyone's eyes on to her.

"But we are not bringing him back here; he will be coming with us."

Ozpin considered this for a moment before he gave a very slight small smile, that they were all sure had disappeared very quickly.

"As the Director of BEACON, if any of my agents find him first he will be brought back to me. However if you find him, then that is up to you to take in a citizen."

They understood the message, they knew the position that Ozpin was in and they knew he couldn't outwardly condone it, but he was giving them a chance.

"I cannot say if you taking him in is the right choice, nor can I let you find him first. That being said, he did manage to ver efficiently dispatch several of our agents so they will be required to suit up with better weapons, amour and plan their strategies a lot more effectively, it will take them about fifth-teen minutes."

The Hunters all stood up and made their way to the lift and got in, not before Yang gave a wink, Nora a salute, Ren a bow and Ruby a smile. Ozpin was confident they would be able to find Captain Arc, and they would do the right thing. He didn't have a choice, part of the agreement had been that Captain Arc would return to Vale on the grounds that after he had awoken he would be tested and made fit for active duty as well as examination and helping to produce the next group of super soldiers. This didn't leave Ozpin with much of a choice, however Miss Rose and her team were the perfect people to take in Captain Arc, they would make sure he was looked after.

"Sir are you sure that this is the right choice?"

"Who knows? I just know that my father knew that we couldn't force Captain Arc to do anything he didn't want to do, and he was one of the people that knew him best in the world."

Down in the city of Vale, the man of the hour is currently running as fast as he could down the road, avoiding the automobiles and the pedestrians as best as he could, whatever this city was it was incredibly large, much larger than his city of Vale and the buildings looked like something out of the comic books that he used to read back in his room, the vehicles also looked exactly the same as well, this place was a technological marvel, he would give it that, Tai and Qrow would have a field day if they could see all this stuff, he would make sure to bring them here when he made it out. He even passed a shop where the entire front window was a television with a short fat man, with a bushy mustache, he seemed to be hosting a radio show, but was making his debut on the television and he was talking about the Monkey-King, the vigilante in Vacuo and about how much of a menace he was, and that he was causing more problems than he was solving, inspiring the youths to be more reckless, he even brought up a video of the Monkey-King and showing him jumping into a burning building, jumping off other buildings and fighting some other men in masks. Jaune was fairly certain that the so called Monkey-King was being put in a bad light, but he had a little bit of his answer as he wasn't in Vacuo, but he wasn't sure why the people of Mistral would be showing news about Vacuo that wasn't about the war effort. However he would save that thought for latter, right now he needed to do something.

The people were eyeing him rather strangely as well he noticed, when he stopped on the corner to watch the little show, he saw many of the other people staring at him with open mouths and shocked expressions, this was probably the lack of shoes and socks, maybe running bare feet was not common in this city. Speaking of which Jaune had managed to conclude that this wasn't Mantle or Vacuo as the temperature was neither freezing, nor was it boiling. He also didn't think that it was Vale as he was certain that he would recognise his home town, so that just left Mistral. However there were only a handful of people that had on Mistral style outfits, and the majority simple wore shirts and jeans. Jaune did notice that a large number of younger people wore their jeans around their knees, why? He had no clue, they looked like idiots.

As he took off running again after stopping on the street corner he failed to hear the conversation from a couple that stopped and watched him as he stood there and then left.

"Damm that guy was jacked!"

"Mmm, I like…"

"Where were his shoes?"

"I'll help him find them if he wants…"

"Claire I'm right here."

"Honey tell me you wouldn't do the same if that Nikos girl wasn't here."

"Good point, love you."

"Love you too Paul."

Jaune kept running as fast as he could and eventually he came across a park entrance, this should give him time to rest and sort out a few things in his head, he needed to remember what the last thing he could think of was, because so far it was a blur. He also needed to look back at the day and see what he could piece together from it, as so much had happened since he woke up, he had already been in about five fights and he hadn't even had breakfast yet! It might be a record for him, not for the team as Tuckson was still in the lead with twelve and to this day Jaune wouldn't believe it unless he saw it in person, in fact he still didn't believe it and he was the last fight and he lost.

As Jaune stumbled deeper into the park he saw a park bench that he could sit on while he caught his breath. The moment he sat down however, he noticed another statue in the centre of a crossroad section of the park. This statue was done in the same style as the one that was outside the glass building he had escaped from, so he heaved himself up and stumbled over to look at it, that was when he recognised the names on the plague and saw that the figures were a dead ringer for his best friends and teammates, Summer, Tai, Raven, Qrow, Captain Ozpin and Tuckson. They were all listed on the plague and they were all stood there in-front of Jaune right now, looking down at him with smiles on their faces, or as much of a smile that Raven and Tuckson liked to give when asked to. Furthermore, the statue had a message underneath their names:

Vale central park memorial

In honour of our friend, teammate, captain and brother; Jaune Arc, Captain Vale, the true hero of Remnant.

Always in our hearts, where ever he is.

That was when Jaune's heart stopped, what was going on? Was this place really Vale? How was this here, was this a joke that was being played on him? Had he actually managed to get drunk and was now having a drunk dream and was going to wake up ready to fight another day? Jaune fell to his knees, because something important had just happened, he remembered.

He remembered all of it; the cold wind whipping his hair around, the sound of the rocket, the taste of blood from Dr Watts' punches, the force that almost compelled him to pick up the Relic, but remembering what he actually needed to do and destroying the rocket with his explosives and jumping clear.

And the cold icy plunge of the ocean water.

He knew there was no way of surviving that even with his virtually indestructible shield, he would die and he had been at peace with that, because everyone else would live. But here he was now and his friends were nowhere to be seen. That was when he heard a different noise; this was coming from directly above him and was casting a huge shadow over the statue and the area of the park. Looking up he saw a plane of some kind floating above him and that's when four people landed around him; to his left was a pretty ginger haired girl with a large hammer that looked to weigh the same as a car, she was very well built and looked like she had actually flown down, there was the Ninja Deathstalker that Jaune had fought before, still looking as intimidating as ever, but he had lost the fire in his eyes like he knew something different this time, then there was a drop dead gorgeous blonde woman with a body most women would kill for, she looked so much like Raven that Jaune almost called out her name, but the eyes gave it away this woman had lilac eyes, and they looked pained, but not the same pain that was behind Raven's, this was a different pain. The last person was the robot girl, the appearance was by no means comforting as Jaune knew that he had caught it by surprise last time and he doubted that he could do so again, as he was really feeling the effects of his injuries and the pain of no proper rest, but he would fight.

Jaune stood up to meet his opponents, by now his vision was starting to blur away and he could just about make them out if he concentrated as hard as he could. He then raised his fists, and shifted his feet.

"I… can… do… this… all… day." Jaune managed to breathe out as he stood ready for the first strike to come. That was when the robot made a whirling sound a opened up and a woman stepped out and not just any woman, she was the spitting image of Summer. Identical in almost every way, the only difference was the eye shape, Summer's eyes were wider, but this woman was defiantly related to her in some way.

"Captain Arc… Jaune, my name is Ruby Rose." She even sounded like summer and had the same voice as her. "We want to help you, you don't need to fight us you can relax, and you are among friends."

Jaune considered her words for a second, should he believe her, she looked so much like Summer, and he was so tired.

"Di… Did we win?" asked Jaune slightly lowering his guard slightly and stepping forward towards the group of people who slowly moved forward to him.

"Because of you, we did." Replied the dark haired man as he gave a half smile.

They won. They finally won, he didn't have to fight anymore. He could rest. That was when Jaune fell forward, the fight completely out of him and almost hit the ground, but was caught by the blonde woman and the ginger girl who held him up as he drifted into unconsciousness, finally at peace.

Everyone held silent for a couple of seconds as Yang and Nora held Captain Arc between them, it was clear that he had passed out, they were just amazed that he had held off for so long, almost a whole hour after waking up from a coma, without having any previous injuries checked or tended to.

"Not going to lie, it's been awhile since I had a guy fall for me like this." Quipped Yang with a smile on her face.

"I get marriage proposals all the time back on Valkyrie, I don't accept them though, they would want me to give up fighting."

"It's not a competition Nora."

"Yeah you're right, I still win."

"How about we get him back to the mansion, I imagine he we appreciate waking up in a more comfortable area than a laboratory." Said Ren hoping to stop the pointless argument.

"No one should have to wake up to that." Agreed Yang as the Bullhead lowered itself to the ground and they lifted Jaune on to one of the benches in the back and made sure that he was secure before they flew back home.

"When he wakes up, who's going to talk to him?" asked Ruby, she wasn't sure that she would be the best person as she was very socially akward.

"I'll do it." Said Ren "In the mean time I can research all about his history and the time period to learn more about his way of life."

That put everyone a bit more at ease, however the question still remained; what would Jaune do when he woke up? Would he continue to fight for his country by joining up with BEACON? Would he just give up fighting altogether and go live a peaceful life? Or would he join The Hunters and fight alongside them in their quest to make sure that the world was safe from shadow organisations and super powered villains? Only time would tell.

All the way back at BEACON Director Ozpin sat behind his desk and pondered on the events that had come to pass, it had been less than a week and already there had been an alien visitor for another planet claiming to be a Goddess, a breakout of a woman with unbelievable control over fire, Yang Xiao-Long had come out of hiding, he had lost the best field agent he had ever had all because he had held information from master Lie Ren, Miss Rose had taken a strong stand against the Atlas military forcing them in to an ultimatum, The Hunters had managed to cripple an unknown enemy base filled with dangerous robots and people, Captain Vale had been found and now was being treated by The Hunters.

Director Ozpin couldn't help but think that some of these events had been planned out by some nefarious party. The breakout in particular, it turned out Nora's lightening had been extremely precise and had only affected Cinder's cell, every other inmate that had escaped had been because she had blown their cells open with fire blasts. Nora claimed that she didn't do it and watching the footage of her fight with Cinder, she had excellent control over her lightning and electricity. Maybe it was possible to redirect a Goddess' powers, but the individual would have to be exceptionally powerful themselves. Not to mention know Nora and her abilities very well to know just how to make her doubt herself. Director Ozpin would have to look further into her history to see if he could find any people that would be antagonistic towards the Goddess of Thunder.

He was interrupted from his mussing be a beeping on his holo-comm, and without looking at the caller identification he knew exactly who would be calling at this time and so soon after news of The Hunters in Vale central park. He still looked maybe hoping that he was wrong, but as usual Director Ozpin was correct in his assumption. He sighed heavily just knowing how this conversation was going to go and mentally preparing himself for the headache, good thing that his Deputy Director Agent Goodwitch had started keeping headache pills around at work and that he had managed to snag a few from her desk, because he was certain that he was going to need them right now.

"Hello James, how are you today?" asked Director Ozpin

"What the hell were you thinking Nick!" yelled General Ironwood's voice as his upper body came into view on the hologram.

"I'm afraid-"

"Damm right you should be-"

"-That you are going to have to be specific James."

"You let an unaffiliated group take in the asset!" shouted General Ironwood

"Captain Arc is a person James, he is not some machine or a weapon. He made his choice and The Hunters got to him before my agents did. It would also seem that Captain Arc took issue with his accommodation here in BEACON and left, injuring multiple members of my staff in the process."

"That is exactly why I said leave him in Atlas, he would never had escaped in my facility." Protested General Ironwood

"Yes and then we might have another incident like Miss Xiao-Long on our hands." Explained Director Ozpin, but it seemed to fall on deaf ears.

"Please, while I admit that Mr Arc is skilled, he would not be able to out match my agents as easily."

"James we have both read the files and heard the stories about Captain Vale and his achievements in battle. Do you truly believe that you could hold the man that liberated Three hundred or more people all by himself from one of the most secure prisons in history?" Asked Director Ozpin in complete disbelief, he already knew the answer but he wanted to see if General Ironwood's ego was over ruling his thinking.

"I am completely sure." It turns out it was indeed affecting his thinking.

"Regardless, Captain Arc has made his choice. He has chosen to stay with The Hunters and if you have a problem with that, you could always take it up with Miss Rose, I am certain she would be more than happy to learn that you still have three where-houses filled with her weapons."

"How do yo-"

"It's my job to know, goodbye James, until next time." And then Director Ozpin left the call, leaving General Ironwood to sit there in anger, it was true he couldn't make a move against Mr Arc, not when he was under the protection of Miss Rose. He would need to play the long game with this one, luckily he had a few players of his own to add to the chess board.

"Olivia send them up now." Ordered General Ironwood, as he spoke into the intercom connecting to his receptionist. After waiting for a couple of second, General Ironwood let his anger lower to more manageable levels, sure he got infuriated with Director Ozpin some times, but they had always managed to reach a compromise before, but now he was angry with him. The elevator doors opened up and five people walked into the room, four of them stood with complete confidence, while the other member of their so called 'Team' was apprehensive about being here.

"It would seem as though our asset has been lost to us, we will now consider him to be our enemy." General Ironwood says to the five members of his strike squad.

The four confident males all reply at the same time with a resounding "Yes sir." This causes the General to look over to his fifth and final recruit, and if he was being honest, the person with the most power on the team.

"Is that understood by everyone?" He gave the question out to the whole room, but she knew exactly who this was aimed at. The way General Ironwood stood looking down at her and the silence from her other Four 'Teammates' told her that the question was completely for her benefit and nobody else's. Once again she was being singled out to get the answer out of her, just like back at home.

"Yes." She replied quietly, and upon looking at the General's face realised it wasn't enough and she needed to say more.

"Yes sir, I understand." She said it with false confidence. That didn't matter whether or not she was confident in the message; she always completed her mission and was excellent in a fight. And now she was obedient as well, the perfect soldier, leagues above Mr Arc and completely outclassing him in every way. General Ironwood almost forgot the disappointment of losing the so called 'Captain Vale' when he looked at her and the rest of his strike squad.

"What will you have us do sir?" asked the tallest person in the room, as he stepped forward confidently. That was why General Ironwood appointed this man to be squad leader, he reminded him of him when he was a young soldier, always eager to serve.

"Continue with the training, soon we head to Vale. I think it's time to have a bit more of a personal chat with Director Ozpin."

The man in the corner puffed out on his cigar, mortals were great fun.

* * *

Now who could that be?

Told you there would be new characters, next chapter will be soon, do not worry. The way I do this is I always have a completed chapter ready while making a new one, and the moment I finish the new one, I upload the one that I have saved up.

I will be heading back to work soon, the life of an outdoor activities instructor mean that I didn't have much to do over the winter, so I wrote out the whole story on paper. Now I just need to put it on word and upload it to the net. Joy.

Favourite Captain America moment come from an episode of earths mightiest heroes in season two, the skrull have him captured and the only information he gives them is his name, rank and serial number. They torture him for months and he doesn't give them anything, and the scientists are baffeled.

"Our scientists, our shamen, they have no idea what is keeping him going."

Just think it's cool, anyway until next time.


	4. History Test

Chapter four: History Test

It had been a whole day since the incident in the park and currently Jaune was lying comfortably in the room that was right next to Yang. This meant that they were currently in a U shape with Jaune and Yang on one side of the U and Ren and Nora on the other side. Ruby was at the point where the two sides connected and the very end of the hallway. Right now the only other occupant in the room with Jaune was Ren who was reading a history book while sat on one of the chairs waiting for Jaune to wake up. Ruby was currently back in her lab working on her amour again and Yang and Nora were in the gym going through some wrestling moves and endurance exercises, and from the sounds of it the workout was extremely intense. Jaune is dressed in a different set of clothes to the ones from BEACON; he had been given a new t-shirt and new pair of trousers. Much to Yang's disappointment she didn't get to change him, Ren did.

Now they had to play the waiting game, not only with the data decryption of the scroll, but also with their newest house guest. They would then need to decide what to do with him when they he woke up, because he might want to go back to BEACON. He may even want to go out in to the wilds and start a new life as a stranger or a wonderer. Right now Ren was more focused on the injuries that he was over coming, and how quickly his body was healing. Penny informed him that Jaune was perfectly healthy now and should be awake shortly and able to move around freely, provided that they didn't immediately start to fight between themselves. Ren knew that he wouldn't fight him, but he wasn't so sure if this man would lower his guard so easily, sure he had fainted into their arms, but he would be waking up in a foreign environment and that was enough to make any soldier nervous.

A small message popped up on his scroll notifying him that Captain Arc's breathing was getting quicker, this meant that he was starting to wake up. They had talked to Penny about not speaking aloud while Jaune was in this stage of transitioning into the new world as they didn't want to overwhelm him and give him a heart attack from hearing a disembodied voice.

As Jaune slowly came to he noticed that he was in a lot more comfortable position than the last time that he woke up, however some things were consistent; he had no idea how he got there or where he was. Looking around he noticed he was on a large bed, a very comfortable large bed and that there was a massive window overlooking a forest with beautiful trees and a lovely garden as well. The sun was also shining through his window with several rays of light going over the covers and on to him, this was when he noticed he had been changed out of a light t-shirt in to a darker one, and the trousers he was wearing were a lot better fitting and were not as tight as the others, someone had clearly changed him while he was asleep and he felt a little bit uneasy about that.

Looking around the room instead of out the window, Jaune saw the dark haired man from before, this time he was just sitting there drinking tea and holding a book. He didn't look threatening or intimidating in the slightest, but it was still strange to find that someone had been there while he was asleep.

"Good morning Captain Arc. I hope that you slept well and have recovered." Said Ren in greeting, always make sure you are polite when meeting someone new, and even though they had already had a fight this was technically the first time they had spoken to each other.

"Yes I did." Replied Jaune tentatively "Did you change me?"

"Yes I did."

"Oh."

"My friend Yang wanted to do it, but I thought it would be safer for me to."

"Thanks?"

"You are very welcome."

Then they fell into silence, and just looked at each other. Jaune thought that the silence was pretty awkward; Ren on the other hand felt didn't feel awkward in the slightest. After a while of them staring at each other with Jaune wondering what to say and Ren is waiting patiently, Jaune realised that he was still in bed and opted to stand up and take a walk. Throwing back the covers and placing his feet on the floor, Jaune was grateful for his lack of socks while he was asleep, he always felt like they confined his feet. Ren was by Jaune's side in an instant and holding out his hand for a handshake.

"Lie Ren."

"Jaune Arc."

"It is an honour to meet you."

"Likewise I am sure."

They then lapsed in to silence again and Jaune took a few steps around the room to get used to being back on his feet, meanwhile Ren tapped on a piece of paper in his hands. So he was a little strange but Jaune wasn't really one to talk, he was an odd one as well.

Ren sent a message on his scroll to the others, telling them that Jaune was awake and letting them know to head to the meeting room and observe the tour that Ren was going to give Jaune. It would be easier with one person giving the tour and not everyone so that he wasn't overwhelmed.

"Would you like a tour?" asked Ren, to which Jaune nodded it, would be good to stretch his legs and walk around the place he was currently staying. As Ren left the room quickly followed by Jaune, the other members of the team were currently in the meeting room watching through the cameras and waiting for the right time to introduce themselves.

"Anyone else know that Ren's first name was Lie?" asked Yang as she broke the silence with a slight chuckle.

"I like it, suits him." Responded Nora as she watched the screen intently, on Valkyrie they had this technology about four hundred years ago, she was amazed with how these mortals had only just progressed to this level of development, although considering the amount of time they had been on the planet she did suppose it was quicker in consideration to her people, but most of the mortals lacked the motivation to push further. Ruby seemed the only one willing to go the distance, however she was also the smartest if what Ren told her is to be correct so it makes sense.

"I'm not saying it doesn't, but come on; he was a SPY and his name is LIE. That is comedy gold." Said Yang gesturing as though the words were right there in front of her. Personally this was a great discovery for her, now she could make up even more puns about his name.

As Ren lead Jaune down the hall he pointed out where his room was and who he was next to; Jaune learned that the he was next to the beautiful blonde that looked almost exactly like Raven he saw the day before, and was called Yang Xaio-Long, exactly the same as Tai, and when he asked he learned that she was indeed the daughter of Raven and Tai. This made Jaune nervous as Tai and Raven were younger than he was, but their daughter looked to be the same age as him; h-how long was he asleep for? He needed to know now.

"Lie, h-how long have I been asleep for?"

The question caused Ren to stop walking and turned back to Jaune, he knew he could of asked the man what he meant by that, but the look in his eyes; pure fear showed exactly what answer he wanted and dreaded. Ren knew what was going to happen next so he swallowed and took a deep breath.

"Jaune, you have been frozen in ice for nearly sixty years. A lot has chang-"

Jaune wasn't listening to that any more, it was impossible, he couldn't have been gone that long. He shouldn't have survived that fall, he shouldn't have survived the ice and he defiantly should not be stood here. This was all wrong. Jaune fell sideways and hit the wall trying to steady himself, his whole body was shaking like a leaf in a hurricane, he was so close to curling up in a ball and crying his heart out, what had happened to him?

He was vaguely aware that Lie was still there in front of him and had crouched down to his level, he didn't say anything, he just placed his hand on Jaune's shoulder and waited for him to be ready to continue. He didn't know how long they stayed like that, but he also didn't care. Eventually he got up with Lie helping him and still holding on to him, that actually helped even if it was something so small like that, he had an air of calm about him that soothed the soul, and Jaune knew that it would be a long time before his soul was at ease, but Lie was helping a little bit.

"Are you going to be able to continue?" asked Ren, as he looked Jaune straight in the eyes. The man before him had gone through so many emotions in the last five minutes that he was surprised he wasn't currently crying, many lesser men would have, hell Ren even knew some agents back at BEACON who would still be on the bed, but Jaune powered through it all and he looked… not determined but like he would push forward however slowly and however long it took him to do it.

"Yeah… I – First round was supposed to be on me…" trailed off Jaune sadly as he looked into the distance. Ren didn't say anything at that, because he didn't need to say anything. He wordlessly turned down the hall and set off slowly, and he was followed shortly afterwards by Jaune, who was still distraught over finding out how far removed he had become from the world, this is why Ren didn't want to show him the gym or Ruby's laboratory yet as it might blow his mind, so they headed down the stairs.

Even though he was still in a semi state of shock, Jaune could not help but be amazed by the house that he was in right now. His home back in the village had nothing on this, and was most likely a pile of rubble or was some kind of floating science station thing. It was saddening to think that there was probably nothing left of his family home, or maybe his family… surely someone must still be around for him to talk to.

"Lie, I don't suppose that I have any family members still alive do I?" asked Jaune

"Please call me Ren, Jaune I much prefer my friends to call me that."

"Very well then Ren. Please tell me that there is someone left."

"No… You are the last Arc in the world… I truly am sorry Jaune, I wish I had some good news."

Ren had never felt worse about having to tell someone that they were left alone in this world, he had to tell several people over the course of his life and it never got any easier, you just got used to it. While that might sound as though it makes it easier, then you have no idea what it is like to tell someone that the person they love most in the world is never coming home. Ren could almost see the light completely fade from Jaune's eyes at that point, but unlike before he didn't fall, Ren suspected he already knew, he just wanted to be wrong.

Jaune had given everything for the world and now it was like the world had taken everything from him, and he was powerless to do anything but listen.

"Please keep going." Jaune begged

"Of course this way."

Ren then lead Jaune into some kind of laboratory, but it wasn't like anything that Jaune had ever seen before, at the glass building place near Vale, the lab there was all dark and had computers lined up along the sides, the machines here were possibly for different experiments, one of them contained a liquid of some kind, another had a cold mist coming from the bottom of it and then there seemed to be a heat coming from the floor almost everywhere that Jaune stepped, did they have more testing area underneath, maybe the white island in the middle moved back so that you could get down there.

"This is the kitchen."

ARE YOU SERIOUS

"Would you like some tea?"

"Just water please."

"Personally I think it is going quite well if you ask me." Said Yang out of the blue.

"Nobody asked you Yang." Replied Ruby eyes still focused on the holo screen.

"Sorry to interrupt you time staring at tall, blonde and handsome." Teased Yang, this managed to prompt a furious blush from Ruby, who began to shake and splutter at the statement that came from the devil of her sister.

"Y-Y-YANG! That i-is ridiculous, absurd, highly irregular, out of or-"

"He has got a nice bum." Pipped up Nora "Not as good as Ren's." she muttered as an afterthought, however both of the other girls heard it, but then they saw the look in Nora's eyes and the way she gripped the hammer and decided that in-fact, they had never heard it and it didn't happen.

"I will say this though, blondie is ticking all my boxes." Purred Yang as she watched his arm flex as he lifted the water up, silently wishing that she could share the glass with him.

"Aww does someone have a crush?" sung Nora

"Pot-kettle." Responded Yang, to which Nora gave her a deadpan look and then shrugged. " No but, I can appreciate good eye candy when I want to."

"Where are the other people that you were with?" asked Jaune after he had drained the glass in one gulp. "I'm sure that there were more of you."

"We didn't want to overwhelm you with so many people, but if you like I could ask them to come out here." Offered Ren sipping the tea that he had just made. Jaune appreciated the gesture, he was already panicked by finding out everything so far and he still couldn't believe that this was the kitchen, where was the oven?

"Yes please. It would be nice to see them." Said Jaune as Ren filled his glass of water back up and handed it back to him so he could drink a lot more as he was suddenly very thirsty. Ren also tapped on the piece of paper he brought out of his pocket, although now that Jaune was looking at it properly, it looked a lot sturdier than paper and also glowed with a white light. Within seconds of Ren tapping the thing and putting it back in his pocket Jaune heard three sets of foot falls coming up behind him and then stopping a couple of feet away from him.

Slowly turning around he was greeted by the three females that he saw yesterday, they looked a lot clearer now that he wasn't about to faint and he could see now that the woman he though was once Raven was nothing like her; she had a smile on her face, seemingly for no reason and Jaune could count on one hand how many times Raven had smiled. Her eyes were a different colour, her hair as well a different colour and it was longer and she appeared to be shorter than Raven. The girl that looked like Summer on the other hand made Jaune do a double take to make sure that it wasn't actually Summer, they were nearly identical, even standing the same and constantly moving their fingers as though they needed to have something to fiddle with at all times. Looking at the two of them Jaune did feel a few pangs in his chest as he dearly missed his friends and seeing their reflections now was… hard.

The last girl however, Jaune had never seen before yesterday. She was beautiful that was sure and had lovely ginger hair that matched the maniacal glint in her eyes. She looked at Jaune with awe and also understanding, and for some reason Jaune knew that this woman out of everyone that he would meet in this time was going to understand him the most in the world. She had done this before, been so removed that when she came back she had to adjust just as hard as he had, and she was proof that if she could do it then anybody could do it. Jaune had no idea why he thought of that and clutched his head as there was a tiny ache in the left side of his temple and when he locked eyes with the ginger woman she just said.

"Sorry, I thought it would help."

Everyone else looked between them curiously, of course they couldn't see inside their heads to see what had happened, they were also unaware of any mental abilities that the others possessed.

"It did… what was it?" asked Jaune honestly

"Acceptance and Reassurance. My mum taught me how to empathise with other people who had been away from people for a long time as I have, to show them that if I can pull through it, they can as well." Explained Nora, as this skill had helped her so many times in her life. Her mum had used the power on her dad a lot as well since he had been in many battles when he was younger and needed both to get him through the hard times, she was nowhere as skilled as her brother or even her mother, but she knew how to use it when needed.

"Thank you." Said Jaune as tears threatened to fall from his eyes, the ginger woman moved forward and hugged him around the waist and after a couple of shocked second he returned the hug and just held her there. Ren was happy, Jaune could recover from this and he would do everything in his power to help him out, he wasn't good with the physical affection like Nora apparently was, but he would be an ear to listen to when he needed to be, he would make sure of that. After the two separated Jaune realised that he had no idea what the names of the three were, and he only knew that Yang was the blonde because she was the only other blonde in the house other than he was.

"I'm sorry… I had hoped to meet under different circumstances, my name is Jaune Arc and it is a pleasure to meet you." He held out his hand to the ginger woman who pushed it aside and gave him a hug again and then stepped back.

"That is how we say hello to a soldier on planet; my name is Nora, princess of Valkyrie, Goddess of Thunder and proud member of The Hunters."

Next up stepped the blonde woman named Yang and she grabbed his hand rather forcefully and almost broke it with her squeeze.

"Nice to meet you blondie, names Yang Xaio-Long, try not to scream it to loud."

Lastly was the summer look alike who stepped forward with an awkward wave and then took Jaune's hand, after he had shaken it from the strength of Yang's squeeze and carefully shock it.

"Hi, I'm Ruby, Ruby Rose. Welcome back, I guess." She said meekly

After the introduction Jaune stood there awkwardly as Ren then asked about the decryption and then he and Ruby started talking about what they should do after they had combed through the information. Shutting out the conversation that they were having Jaune looked over to Nora and Yang, Nora was watching the two converse and alternating between them making her head swivel, Yang on the other hand was watching Jaune and gave him a smile when they locked eyes, which Jaune returned and then he took a sip of his water again. This was still all too much, he wished he had Nora help with her mind thing again, but he didn't want to ask her to constantly do that.

"Anyway in the meantime I think we should focus on training to work with each other." Said Ruby with an air of authority, she was most likely the leader of this 'team' they had. "Would you like to join us Jaune?" she asked.

"Train? Um no thanks, I just want to be alone for a bit to think."

"Yeah that makes sense, I mean you only just got up and you don't have a weapon." Said Nora as she held up her fingers listing two things, she was struggling for a third, but relented and just said two.

"Yeah… no shield." Murmured Jaune as he drank the rest of his water

"Actually I asked the Director about your shield, but he said that he would not send it over." Said Ren "He didn't say why and I asked him repeatedly because I thought it would help you out, having something from your past to help you through this time."

"If he has your weapon then we must go and get it back!" declared Nora and Jaune wholeheartedly agreed with her, that shield had been through a lot with him and if it was here then nothing was going to stop him from getting it back. He nodded in agreement and the others chimed in with their support.

"Yeah let's go show them the full force of The Hunters!" yelled Yang

"We won't fight, we will talk and then they will give me my shield." Said Jaune firmly, the tone of his voice was very commanding and Ruby was slightly jealous that she didn't have a voice that grabbed the attention of everyone like that when she spoke.

After that was established they all decided that they were going to suit up and head to BEACON again, it seemed that was all they did right now, just head to BEACON and then they solved problems there. Nora stayed with Jaune as she didn't need to get suited up in anything since she just wore her battle clothes around all the time, when Ruby was walking down the steps holding her amour in its suitcase form she saw that Nora was explaining to Jaune what they were going to be getting there in, and from the look of Jaune he was very green in the gills right now at the prospect of flying to BEACON.

Once they caught a look at the Bullhead they would be taken Nora turned to Jaune and told him that this was what she was talking about, and if possible he got even greener at the sight of flying in something like that. Ruby was pretty sure that Jaune must have flown before in his time during the war, and what she had designed now was ten times more efficient than whatever they had back then. When she told him this he didn't change colour at all, just stood incredibly still. During the whole flight to BEACON Jaune was bent over in his seat and Ren had provided him with a bucket that Jaune was extremely grateful for, since he had thrown up in it twice already. Ruby discreetly asked Penny to slow down the ship to make it more stable, however Yang then said that if the trip was prolonged maybe Captain Vomit Boy would just chuck up more times before they actually got to BEACON, it was a sign of her ultimate restraint in teasing that she included the Captain at the start of his nickname. Nora was asking all sorts of questions about the vomit and Ren was dutifully answering them all without getting squeamish in the slightest. However the sounds and the thought of the vomit getting on them had driven Yang and Ruby as far away from him as possible; one out of fear of her hair and the other out of fear of her amour.

The moment they touched down at BEACON Ren assisted Jaune on to the ground where he promptly collapsed and started praising Oum for solid ground. Several agents greeted them and were shocked by the appearance of Jaune, most were let down that the legendary hero was incapable of flying without throwing up causing all but there escort to leave. There escort was a man with round timed glasses and crazy green hair with a mismatching yellow tie and a half tucked in shirt, he quickly moved forward and held out his hand in greeting to Jaune who was still trying to learn how to breathe properly after throwing up. He then approached Nora and examined her in great detail for all of three seconds before yelling questions at her about; age, diet, origin, animals, technology and coffee on her planet. Nora took this as a challenge and answered back just as fast as he gave the questions. The only person that managed to follow any of this was Ren, who eventually stopped the crazy man by greeting him with a bow.

"Hello Doctor Oobleck, as always nice to see you."

"Ah yes agent Ren, so good to see you, how are you? Well. Splendid. Absolutely splendid and this woman is a goddess, a real goddess in the flesh, the things you must have seen my dear, simply incredible. And of course Captain Jaune Arc, you sir are a legend with no equal, all of us historians know you and your story, the hero of Remnant, the slayer of Grimm and saviour of humanity, this is a fortuitous day for a historian indeed." Spoke Doctor Oobleck faster than a bullet from a railgun.

"Yeah… a legend, sure." Muttered Jaune as he stood up and then noticed the statue, now sure that he wasn't hallucinating he could see it clearly and really believe it was there. They had built a monument to him, meant to inspire people and bring about the next group of heroes. Looking at it now made Jaune sad, he couldn't be proud of this; he had left everyone, disappeared when he was needed and let down those he cared about. Yes he stopped the rocket, but what about the aftermath, would he not have been needed then? That statue wasn't inspiring him, right now it just reminded him of what he had left behind, and it seemed the agents around had felt the same, he had heard them murmuring, they had all come to see the legend, the hero of the war and their statue come to life and they had been disappointed. He turned his back on the statue and followed the crazy haired man towards the glass building he had escaped from at the start.

Yang shared a concerned glance with Ren, both of them had been at the right angle to see the look pass over Jaune's face, this man wasn't honoured to have a statue of him in the middle of the courtyard, he was disappointed. Disappointed that they would even consider him to be a hero, probably because he had been gone for so long. Yang made sure to stand strong by his side and place a hand on his shoulder, in a silent show of support for her new friend. Once Doctor speedy had lead them to the lobby Yang noticed Goodwitch waiting there, still looking as regal and beautiful as ever, honestly Yang wondered if she would look even half as beautiful as she did when she reached her age, some people were just fortunate like that. Goodwitch gave them a once over and then looked Jaune up and down a few times and Jaune regarded her wearily, oh yeah they had a fight on the way out.

"Sorry if I hurt you ma'am." Said Jaune as he scratched the back of his neck, in what Yang thought to be an adorable display of nervousness, Goodwitch was going to eat him alive, and like the good friend she was, she would laugh. Hard.

"It is okay Captain Arc, good to see that even all these years didn't make you any less skilled." Praised Goodwitch, which made Yang's jaw drop. How could she complement him after getting her butt kicked by him.

"Still it must have hurt right, it wasn't a light throw, are you sure your, uh, chest is okay." Asked Jaune with a heavy blush, 'now that was a very brave thing to ask a woman, especially this woman' thought Yang as she gave a very large grin and leaned over Jaune's shoulder.

"Maybe you should offer a massage." She whispered into Jaune's ear, this shocked the soldier and made him step away from her; Goodwitch also gained a very light blush and fixed Yang with a deathly glare.

"Miss Xaio-Long, might I suggest that you choose your next words carefully, I can make your life very difficult."

Gulp "You don't scare me."

"Yang, she can still see you, even if you are hiding behind Nora."

"Shut up Ruby!" growled Yang, still hiding behind Nora, hoping that Goodwitch would stop glaring at her.

Spoiler alert: she didn't.

"Please follow the Director is waiting, and I am fine Captain Arc." Jaune nodded and the group began to follow Goodwitch toward the ever familiar elevator, Yang still using Nora as a shield from her death glare. Fortunately once they all got into the elevator Goodwitch faced the doors away from Yang who was happily stood at the back, so long as she was away from Goodwitch during the quiet trip up to see Ozpin she could enjoy the silence. When the elevator finally dinged open Goodwitch was the first to step out in to Ozpins office and Jaune followed her through afterwards and therest of The Hunters came after him, with Yang still hiding behind Nora ready to leap out the window at a moment's notice if Goodwitch threatened her again.

"Captain Arc meet D-"

"Captain Ozpin! Finally a familiar face!" cried out Jaune in joy as he moved towards the Director and grabbed him in a fierce hug, that the Director didn't return and when they broke away Jaune looked up and down at Ozpin and realised that this wasn't the man that he knew. The smile that he had on was quickly lost and it broke Ruby's heart to see someone lose all that joy in a second.

"I'm so sorry Captain Arc, but my name is Director Nick Ozpin, you knew my father; Captain William Ozpin. He spoke her highly of you and would tell me all about how he hoped you got the peace you so wanted." Ruby watched Jaune step back and have his eyes firmly locked on the floor and swallowed before he spoke next.

"T-That's good to hear, Captain Ozpin was always someone who deserved a happy ending." Said Jaune as he sighed sadly.

"I know why you are hear Captain Arc, you are hear for your shield." And then Ozpin went behind his desk and pulled out the shield, and Ruby had to hold in a breath as it was an exceptional weapon, the shine, the craftsmanship, the paintwork and the metal, as Ruby silently asked Penny to zoom in on it as well as scan the metal, she found that it was taking in vibrations from the surrounding air and making it give off a very low humming sound, almost unable to hear it if she hadn't enhanced it so that she could. Penny also couldn't tell what metal that it actually was as the element was not on the periodic table and there was no known element that made up the shields structure. Ruby couldn't wait to test it, of course if Jaune would let her test it that would be spectacular.

"Still just a perfect as the first time." Said Jaune absentmindedly as he placed his hand on top of the double crescent emblem and just held it there lost in his memories.

"I kept this here for one reason; I wanted to meet you and this was a sure fire way to make sure that you would come, I wanted to talk to you about an opportunity to join BEACON."

"Wait han-"

"Miss Rose if you would remember your place as a guest here and not interrupt the Director, that would be polite."

"As I was saying; Captain Arc you helped save the world once, and yes The Hunters have done a fair bit-"

"Cleaning up your messes-" muttered Yang to Nora and Ren; one who nodded in agreement and the other who just narrowed their eyes, points for guessing which did which.

"-But, BEACON is still recognised as the best place for protection. We have been active for a very long time and gained a lot of respect from the people, and with you joining us BEACON could do so much more."

"Jaune as someone who used to work for BEACON I feel inclined to tell you that they will keep things from you, they might help but they are primarily spies, and they value that secrecy." Said Ren

"That is correct Master Ren, we have kept secrets from people in the organisation-"

"-And the public." Interrupted Ren

"-sometimes we have to, if they knew what we know then there would be a lot of unrest and distrust between the government and the people."

"Nothing makes the people calmer than lying to them." Said Yang with a roll of her eyes, to which Nora snorted trying to contain her laughter.

Ruby watched Jaune as he considered all of this and she could only imagine what he was thinking; BEACON would offer a more stable lifestyle for him and would have a better chance for him to adapt back in to the world. However with The Hunters he could be honest and he wouldn't be used as a symbol, he would be a person and they would do their best to make sure that he is included in everything, they had done a good job with Nora and they could help him out to.

"Thank you for the opportunity sir, but I don't want to keep secrets from anyone, I've been told I'm bad at lying."

"Captain Arc, this would be a great opportunity for you. Save the world with more than just a small team of people."

"I did save the world already sir." Began Jaune as he held the shield not taking his eyes off of it for a second as though he was remembering how he saved the world. "And it was with a small team, a small team of exceptional people. And it worked because they just saw me as that, a person and I saw them as people. And that is what I need right now; to be with others who see people, look out for the little guy and in a big group like this you tend to forget the little guy, so I am flattered sir, but I'm not a statue, I'm just Jaune Arc."

Director Ozpin looked at Jaune for a couple of seconds, considering his response and not giving away anything with his steely poker face, Ren however could read it as he looked into his old boss' eyes, he was pleased with Jaune's choice, but that made Ren wonder why he would keep the shield all to himself and not send it over, was this all just to meet Jaune and test him to see what he would choose?. After a while he nodded and held out his hand gesturing to the shield, almost giving his permission to take it. Ren thought it was nice that the Director thought he had a choice, because from Jaune's body language he was going to be walking out with the shield even if Ozpin said he couldn't have it, and Ren was inclined to help him with that.

"You are making a mistake." Said Goodwitch out of the blue, surprising Ren as she had been very quiet up until now, most likely displeased with the option that Jaune had chosen. "With BEACON you have the backing of multiple agents, the council and the majority of the public, if something goes wrong out there on a mission BEACON can cover you, however if it goes wrong out there with you lot, then you are on your own. The people will turn on you and you will be witch hunted, with BEACON we have acceptable casualty losses, you 'Hunters' may be considered an accessory to the death you might cause."

It was a heavy statement, and it was one that Ren had considered. They were acting alone and they would have to deal with the consequences of their actions, but then again so did everyone. Ren would just have to push them to do the best they could and the more people they had on their team, then the more they could do. They might not be well known, but the safest hands were their own, if they had some council members tell them what to do, they might tell them to destroy an innocent village and leave a guilty one. Control was best left to them.

Ruby understood where Goodwitch was coming from; having someone tell them what to do might be for the best, it would then shift all of the blame on to them. However is that how she wanted to do things, shifting the blame on to others when she had done the action that required the blame? That wasn't right, and it wouldn't be what Dad wanted her to do. If they did work for BEACON and the council what was to stop them from asking Yang to be subject to experiments, order Nora to leave the planet and never return. Then there was the chance that they would work the deal to force Ruby to start making weapons again and undo all of her work, and that was something that she didn't want to do. That would be a waste of her life.

"You know what, you might be right." Admitted Jaune "But you said something that ensures I will never work for BEACON, and that might have been your mistake; there is no such thing as acceptable casualties. There never will be, we don't trade lives and we don't put anybody else's life above another's. Our job is to save and protect, not find a way to make sure that the minimal amount of people can die."

"You have been gone for a long time Captain Arc, sometimes there is no other way."

"Then you make the other way and plant yourself by that ideal, like a strong tree near the river of truth."

Goodwitch looked Jaune right in the eyes, all the awkwardness of before when asking how she was had disappeared, stood in front of her now was the man who had lead an army over the trenches, freed prisoners of war, beaten the toughest warriors of Mistral and taken down the most evil organisation of the war. What is the most incredible thing about that is he didn't kill a single person, and he had the lowest causality rate of any military leader in history before or since his battles. This man always found another way, and he didn't care if it cost him his own life.

Jaune then held his shield firmly and walked towards what Ren had called the elevator and stood in front of it, before the doors had just opened up for them by themselves, now they remained shut. Jaune then saw Ren reach out next to him and press a section on the wall that stuck out a little bit further than the others and the doors opened up, so there must be something mechanical to it, which made a lot more sense as Jaune previously thought the elevator just knew that they wanted to go in it. Before he got into the elevator, Jaune turned around to look at Director Ozpin and ask him one final question before they left.

"Where is he buried?" Ozpin regarded him carefully and looked over the top of his glasses at Jaune with a steady look in his eyes, and then he understood, the Captain just wanted to say goodbye to his old friend in a soldier's way.

"All of them are in the same place Captain Arc, the Vale National Cemetery. It is near the east of the outer wall, you won't be able to miss where they are."

"Thank you sir, and goodbye." Jaune turned to Goodwitch and nodded. "Ma'am." And then the rest of The Hunters joined him in the elevator trip on the way down, and just like the trip up to the office it was done in silence.

As they exited and made their way back through the lobby, Ruby noticed that many of the people now had their eyes on the ragtag group, and Ruby supposed that they did make for a strange bunch, Jaune with his shield now strapped onto his back, Her in her full amour with the head piece off, Ren armed to the teeth with an assortment of arrows, knifes, guns and bolts, Nora in her pink skirt had thankfully decided to leave her hammer outside and then Yang who had numerous posters placed up around most major cities in the kingdoms detailing that she was a walking Richter scale, and Ruby had no doubt that every agent here knew exactly who she was because of that. Finally outside they saw that a great number of the more muscular agents were trying their hardest to lift up Nora's hammer and failing, much to the joy of Doctor Oobleck who was watching with great amusement and taking down notes at a pace so fast the paper was almost on fire. As the biggest looking guy stepped forward and tried to lift it up and failed spectacularly Nora let out a loud laugh and was followed by Yang who joined in, this caused many of the agents to back away from the hammer as they were aware that it was the ginger girls, and she was supposed to be some kind of goddess.

"Wow there are a lot of you trying to lift my hammer aren't there? Has anybody not had a go that wants to give it a try, now is your chance!" Nora yelled out to the crowd, although nobody stepped forward to try to lift it, so she just sighed in disappointment and held out her hand causing the hammer to fly towards her and find its home back in her grasp. The agents just stared in awe and the group followed a skipping Nora towards the Bullhead ready to leave, one person following reluctantly, unaware of the three different sets of eyes watching him; Amber filled with curiosity, Grey filled with malice, and Brown filled with respect.

Right as the group stepped on to the Bullhead Ruby got an alert through her helmet and when she put it back on and brought it up, she saw that there was a giant monster that was attacking the island of Vytal, she quickly told the rest of The Hunters and was met with two happy cries of joy and one sigh of disappointment.

"Yeah I'm gonna punch it, I mean I doubt it will do anything but I'm still going to try." Said Yang.

"I wanna ride it." Said Nora as Ruby brought up an image of a giant black monster that resembled a large dragon, one that wasn't breathing fire though but just seemed to be yelling loudly, it came up from the water and was nimbly moving around one side of the island, a ship had tried to fight it but their cannons were useless against the beast. Since it was being attacked the dragon turned its head and shot towards the ship and split it in half be diving right through it.

"Not talking about Ren here Nora." Teased Yang

"There will be time for that later, Hunters, time to work. Jaune you'll sit this one out." Said Ruby

"What?! No I can help, it won't be the first monster I've fought." He protested

"You just woke up today, haven't fully healed despite what you may say and on top of that you found out that you have been in ice for sixty years. Take some time, we can handle this thing and then the next giant monster we fight, you can be right there beside us."

Jaune looked at her solidly for a moment and then smiled softly, but Yang noticed that it was a fake smile, one you practice in front of the mirror every day to try and make people feel at ease around you, she knew it well, it was the kind of smile that she often used to give to Ruby when she asked how work was before the accident.

"Okay I'll stay."

"Good, let's go team, we have a monster to beat." And with that they all boarded the Bullhead and took off in to the air leaving the soldier of legend alone once again.

As the Bullhead was heading towards the location where the monster was Ruby started to doubt what she had said, maybe it would have been better to bring Jaune along to fight with them, he was supposed to be very good at it and he had lead many people into battle so he might be able to come up with a decent plan as to how they could defeat the monster. But she just felt a little voice in the back of her head that said it would have been better to leave him back there, and it did bring up some good points, he wasn't used to the world yet and this was the equivalent of helping someone to swim while throwing them into a maelstrom.

"Okay guys here's the plan; the thing has got a tough hide so most of the weapons Ren and I have are just going to annoy it, it does like to move around a lot so step one is to limit its movement, breaking the legs or incapacitating them should work, Ren I have some new arrows that will drill through anything so if you can hit the right area where the joints connect it will halt it's movement. Its mouth seems to shoot out a form of electricity, Nora absorb and redirect. Once we have it unable to move then we can start hitting it harder and turn it into paste."

"Question: Is it my turn to throw Ren?" ask Yang while smiling at the marksman with an evil glint in her eyes.

Ren looks sternly at Yang for a second before replying with a resounding "No." and then going back to packing in the arrows that Ruby had pointed out during her planning speech. But not before pleasure in watching the disappointed look cross her face after he shot her down, heh archery pun.

The doors to the Bullhead were opened and just before Yang and Nora could jump out to start the fight and get on with their jobs, they were stopped by Ruby who handed them communication devices that they could put in their ears and would still be able to talk to the others without having to shout at them, or fly over to each other and talk face to face. Then Nora threw Yang as hard as she could towards the beasts left leg just as Ruby flew in front of its face to distract it and focus the attention on her. Yang slammed hard in to the monsters left leg and a loud snap could be heard all around the area where they were in. The force that Yang had been thrown caused the beast to be in a lot of pain, so it opened its mouth and roared out and simultaneously shot a blast of electricity from its mouth straight at Ruby. However she was fast enough to blast her way to the side in a streak of red as her cape trailed behind her, and she let loose a few shots from her repulsors making sure to strike the dragon with silver bolts of power. However this didn't do much but annoy the monster and move its head to the side, this distracted it from Ren who was still up in the Bullhead, which had moved around to the right side of the beast and released three of the new arrows that Ruby had given him into its right leg; one arrow went into the point where its hip was, the second into the knee and the third deep into the ankle. All of them severed the ligaments in the joints and since the beast was heavily leaning on that leg after Yang shattered its other, it fell over completely on to its stomach and lay there; defiantly shooting beams of electricity up into the air trying to hit the Bullhead; however Penny managed to manoeuvre it out of the way and Ren then jumped out and landed onto a sturdy roof building that had survived the onslaught of the attack. Now that the target was completely immobilised and it's attention was focused on Ruby who was flying around directly in its face, Nora had a clear chance to end the fight once and for all; she rocketed up into the air and called in a thunder storm and lightning struck her hammer, charging her up with power and then she dived down towards the monster and hit it with enough force to obliterate the beast and turn it into ash.

Ruby let out a sigh of relief, they had managed to win the battle with an incredible display of teamwork and strength, the plan beforehand had worked perfectly and the speed in which they had defeated the monster was astounding. Ruby was also luck that there were no civilians around the area, so nobody had gotten hurt because of what happened, she also hadn't used much power so her suit and her heart were still in excellent condition, unfortunately Nora had reduced the beast to nothing but dust, as Ruby was curious to study it and find out more about it, but it was probably better this way, as they now defiantly knew that the beast was defeated.

"Everyone okay." She called out over the radio communicators

"YES THAT WAS AWESOME!" Screamed Nora into her communicator.

"Hell yeah sister, you smashed it!" yelled Yang's reply.

"I am unharmed." Said Ren, just as calm and collected as ever, even in the face of a giant murderous dragon.

Standing in the place where the beast was Nora had a big grin on her face and was swaying side to side happily when Yang came over and offered her a high five, which she then had to explain what a high five was. However their victory was short lived as Ren spotted some ripples in the water and warned the girls that the fight might not be over yet. Unfortunately he was proved correct, as three more black dragon like beasts rose up from the depths and begun to make their way to the shore, whatever they were, they wanted a fight and judging from the looks on Nora and Yang's faces they were going to get a very good fight. Ren couldn't help that think maybe having Jaune here would be a good idea, more numbers on their side and he would give a tactical advantage as he was a prominent military leader, he also couldn't help the paranoid part of his mind that said keeping Jaune away from the monsters was what someone wanted all along, but Ren didn't know why he thought that, was this all just some trick being pulled on them?

"Fights not over yet Hunters; let's send them back to where they came from." Ordered Ruby as she blasted off to go and engage the new monsters that had just come into play, this was going to be a hell of a fight.

* * *

Location: Classified

Time: Unknown

Date: Unknown

All of that secret information was useless when faced with the abilities of a master of espionage like Mercury Black, over the years he had managed to uncover almost every single rock the council had and extort them in every way imaginable. His long life had been both a blessing and a curse; the curse was the pain, every waking moment his body was in constant pain, it had damaged his legs in such a way that they had to be removed and replaced with cutting edge prosthetics, they actually worked better than the real things, but now he had phantom pain to worry about. The blessing came in the form of his work, that had gotten him noticed by several prominent figure in the world of Remnant, The Kingpin of crime in Vale for example had requested his services on multiple occasions, meaning he had gotten to do the killing he so dearly loved, and each target was so different and unique with various different levels of security that presented him with a challenge. However that challenge had grown stale almost twenty years ago, now he craved something more, something worth his time, something he could truly be proud of, after all only one target had ever managed to survive him and it had resulted in his never ending agony.

That was why he had come to this place, the person that he was going to be meeting here had told him of a target that he would most defiantly want to 'meet'. Mercury had questioned his host before he came to the meeting point, but they were adamant on the surprise being the most enticing part of the meeting and that he would be very pleased with the target. Mercury did have his doubts, yet the good doctor rarely did disappoint him, he had helped him with his case of pain and been the one to provide the mechanical legs and they had worked without fault for many years now.

As Mercury entered in to the secret lab he was greeted by the smell, the ever familiar smell of death and decay that the doctor seemed to revel in, he said that it motivated him to work harder as he knew the consequences of what could go wrong, Mercury was no stranger to these smells, but he wouldn't think of them as being motivators, he much preferred a minty smell or maybe a vanilla as they were much more pleasant. He also heard the sound as well, the quiet roaring and crying of the beasts that the doctor was making and manufacturing, this man was fascinated with the old creatures of Grimm and was determined to make his own, however they were mere pale copies that ended up turning to dust after an hour of productivity. Not that Mercury cared, he had fought and killed real Grimm before all those years ago, and he had even done some jobs for the Grimm cult in Vacuo, they were a disturbed lot, but they spoke with passion and Mercury could respect that, in its own demented way.

The rest of the lab was exactly as you would expect it to be for an evil, mad and paranoid doctor who loved to experiment on monsters. There were test tubes all over the place filled with different coloured liquids, generators powering different devices creating a low humming and static sound that filled the room when the roars didn't, centrifuges spin around mixing different chemicals together, and naturally the glasses with different parts of the human body up for display. While Mercury might have been a professional assassin, he wasn't a torturer or a mutilator, he did clean kills that were over quickly, it was his code. If he was being honest, that there creeped him out a little bit.

"Ah Master Black you came." Spoke a voice from the shadows. "At last, I almost feared you would forgo our meeting for the sake of annoying me." The doctor usually spoke like this, always thinking he was the smartest man in the room, while that might have been true when he was alone, now he was in the presence of someone older and wiser and the act was just that; an act.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm here, what's the problem?" Asked Mercury tiredly as he waved his hand around, projecting the body language of being lazy and disinterested. "Need someone to die again or is it to acquire some top of the line goods that I really could not give a crap about?"

The doctor let out a chuckle and stepped into the light, Mercury finally got a good look at him today and he looked no different than the last time he saw him one month ago; grey hair that was spiked up in every single direction, a pointy beard that looked to be the only thing well maintained about the man, his metallic hand that was stroking the beard was black with red pulses of energy and the blood red mechanical eye glaring right at Mercury, analysing him as only a scientist could.

"Oh it is even better, someone that you want to die, more than anything."

Mercury snorted "I doubt that, the only person I want dead is already dead. The only annoying thing is that is wasn't by my hand." He finished growling as he clenched his fists in rage.

"Yes the Captain." Said doctor Merlot as he turned away from Mercury and walked over to the large computer. "Good thing he's not actually dead."

"What?" Mercury asked in disbelief, his head shooting up toward Merlot and appearing by his side in an instant. "Explain yourself now!" he demanded

"I'll do one better." And he pressed a button on the screen and brought up the image of Captain Jaune Arc standing outside of the BEACON lobby, the cameras had caught him as he was exiting the building and had his shield strapped onto his back. It could have been a look alike, but Mercury could feel it, deep in his heart he knew that this man was Captain Vale, the very same man that had killed him, denied him of peace and the man responsible for every agonising moment of pain he felt throughout his body.

His grey eyes glared with malice.

"His companions on the other hand are quite spectacular, a new friend of mine has a vested interest in them and I am sure you do not want the meeting between yourself and Captain Arc to be interrupted."

"You are correct doctor." Snarled Mercury, his eyes never leaving the screen as he burnt holes through Jaune's head.

"I already have a distraction planned for them, and my new friend has ensured me that you can have your alone time with Captain Arc, all he asks is for you to them help him out with-"

"Done."

"Oh… just like that?"

"Your new friend is giving me Arc on a plate; after he is dead I'm free to do whatever he wants me to do… free of charge."

"My, my, you must detest the Captain great deal."

"You have no idea."

"Very well, he is going to the Vale national cemetery, a fitting place if you ask me."

"Perfect, you have out done yourself on this one doctor, once it is done I want to meet this friend of yours and thank him personally." And with that, Mercury departed from the laboratory and headed to his ride, finally he could have his revenge, he didn't care how Arc had survived Dr Watts, but right now he didn't care, his life was his to take and there was no force on the planet that was going to stop him, he might even bring back his body for doctor Merlot to inspect as a thank you for this early birthday present.

Back in the laboratory doctor Merlot watched as Mercury Black sped off on his bike heading back towards the main city of Vale and smiled softly, it was all going as his new friend and employer had said, the plan really was without fault. He would have to give it to the man, not only did he have style he also had substance, the fall of that fire maiden, the destruction of the base being run by Miss Sustrai and the discovery of Captain Vale, all of this going exactly as the man predicted. If doctor Merlot was not a man firmly in the belief of science, he would theorise that there was a certain magical entity surrounding this man's clairvoyance, however he must have simple done an impeccable amount of research to acquire such results, not unlike a certain genius scientist would have done.

"Oh yes Master Black, you will meet my friend. And it will be an interesting sight to see." But enough of his musing, he turned back to the screen to see how his precious was doing and was surprised to see that it had faded into nothing but ashes. His friend had not over sold their abilities in the slightest, perfect. Now he could conduct a proper field test against the correct combatants to achieve the results that he so desired. Pressing another button on the keyboard, three more of his precious beasties rose from the water and began making their way to the so called 'Heroes' intent of devouring them.

Doctor Merlot could not be any happier with this experiment.

* * *

As Jaune wondered through Vale and actually took in the sights he was vastly overwhelmed, this was all too much for him, the noises, the people, the smell, the lights and the feeling of eyes following him everywhere he went.

Amber eyes filled with curiosity.

A car had backfired and Jaune had been so distraught that he was suddenly back in the middle of the battle field, and before he knew it he had slipped his shield off and almost thrown it at the source of the noise. The only thing that stopped him was a small little girl that stood in his way and she managed to bring him back to the current, right in the middle of the street, the very busy, very loud street. So Jaune shouldered his shield and jogged off in the direction of the cemetery that Doctor Oobleck had pointed him off to, in hopes of escaping the noise.

After rounding a few corners and asking a nice old man where he could find the cemetery, he finally arrived at the graveyard. A strange place to be, but now Jaune felt a sense of completion, he had successfully managed to navigate his way through the future to the place that he wanted to be. Walking through the gates of the graveyard Jaune noticed a sign, one end of it pointed towards 'Family and friends', the other end pointed toward 'Brothers and sisters in arms'. Jaune knew exactly where he needed to go and followed the path along the way, a quick look at the map told him that the graves were divided up in to squads made up of the unit that the person served in and then each of those were then lined up in order of rank. This meant that his team would all be together and all lined up next to each other.

Jaune spent a good ten minutes searching for the his team and was getting more and more concerned the longer it went on without him finding them, and he was almost at his end when he noticed the a line that just had seven different tombstones for the whole of it and then a massive gap before the next set of tombstones. Testing his luck he walked over and saw his name on one of the stones, and then he saw Captain Ozpin's, then Tucksons, then Summer's, then Tai's, then Raven's and finally Qrow's name. All lined up, exactly like they were the first time the General called them into a meeting.

Jaune knelt down in front of them and placed his hands on the ground, lowering his head.

"First round's on me guys." He managed to choke out silently as he started to feel tears come up behind his eyes. He let them come, his friends deserved these tears. Jaune didn't know how long he knelt there, but eventually he felt a hand rest on his shoulder and a calming yet weathered voice spoke to him.

"First time in a while son?"

Jaune looked up and saw the aging man from before who had directed him towards the cemetery two blocks away, Jaune wondered if he had been followed by this man.

"Just came by to see my spitfire, when I saw you, figured you could use a hand there son."

Jaune didn't say anything, he just turned back to the graves and stared at them, while it might have felt real before, Jaune now fully understood the whole event. He was all that was left, everyone else here was gone, but he was the only one left, the last soldier of the worst war in history.

"You just get back from overseas? You look like you have seen some action." His voice wasn't pushy, just concerned and kind, and Jaune found himself speaking before he knew he actually was.

"Just got back after a long time away." He muttered in reply, loud enough for the man to hear him.

"I remember my tour's, I was in Vacuo, couldn't stand the heat."

"Mantle."

"Huh, didn't know about anybody that still called Atlas that, nor did I know of anyone being stationed over there. But I can tell it wasn't easy, and that you want me to leave." The man reached into his pocket and pulled out a card and held it out to Jaune. "You might feel like the only one who's seen terrible things, but there are others and we meet every week. If you feel like coming to one please do, you don't have to talk just listen and when you're ready share."

Jaune hesitantly took the card with the address of the location.

"Thank you sir."

"Anytime kid." And then the man left Jaune to his own devices, I guess no matter where you went, or when you went, there were kind people around that were keen to offer help. Jaune stayed by the graves of his friends before standing up and walking back towards the entrance.

"Goodbye." He said as he walking away from his old friends.

"Oh let's not get to carried away Captain Vale, I'm sure you'll be saying hello in a second." Came a sarcastic and condescending drawl from behind him. Jaune knew that voice, Jaune knew that man and he knew that there was no way that he could be speaking to him. This was the only man that Jaune had ever killed and was the only man that he would ever kill in his life, but when Jaune turned around he saw him; Mercury Black in the flesh, master assassin and murder of Professor Watts who was his good friend.

"Long time no see Arc." He said with that cursed smirk, his body portrayed a relaxed and nonchalant posture, but Jaune could see in his eyes an inferno of rage and anger, with all of it directed at him. Mercury was not going to hold anything back and Jaune was going to fall to his mercy right here.

"M-Mercury? How? Are you real?" asked Jaune in complete disbelief that the assassin was still alive and stood right in front of him at this time.

"Aw you remember me." He said sarcastically. "I'm touched, and yes 'Captain', I am very real and I am going to make you suffer and then you are going to die. Any questions?"

"But how ar-" Jaune was very quickly interrupted by Mercury springing forward with a right side kick catching Jaune completely by surprise, which it shouldn't have as he tended to lead with his kicks and attack before everyone else could finish their thoughts, it was a masterful tactic he used to knock his opponent off balance, and right now it worked so well that Jaune was sent back, skidding across the track back to the entrance of the cemetery on his shield, sending up sparks across the floor. Lying on the floor Jaune shook his head and rolled over backwards onto his feet and considered his advantages over Mercury; to him it had been three days since their last fight, but to Mercury it had been sixty years, he might have forgotten how Jaune fought. However Mercury has most likely spent those years fighting and killing people, upping his experience and if Jaune knew one thing experience usually won. If he could exploit his anger however, then Mercury would be the one off balance giving Jaune openings that he could exploit; here's hoping that the years haven't calmed him down.

Jaune unstrapped his shield from behind his back and slotted it on to his left arm, now he felt ready, now he felt balanced. Mercury sneered at the sight of Jaune armed with his shield, as though remembering last time that they had fought and the outcome of that match up. Dashing forward Mercury slid into a low sweep with his right leg aiming for Jaune's front foot to knock him of balance; however Jaune lifted his left leg off the ground so the sweep flied harmlessly underneath him. Mercury on the other hand was not one to waste an opportunity and used the momentum to spin his right leg into a high arcing spinning kick aimed at the side of Jaune's head, but was deflected over him by the famous shield. Mercury didn't give up though as that wasn't his style, so using his hands and a little bit of break dancing he swung his left leg around while Jaune's shield had been lowered by his second attack, this allowed Mercury to strike with a tremendous amount of force and power causing Jaune to flip over and crash into a gravestone, chipping away some of the masonry.

"Perfect, I was worried that you weren't going to be as I remembered you." Came Mercury's voice from behind him.

Placing his hand on the headstone and using it to help him stand up he looked at the name engraved on the stone and saw 'Private Steven Rodgers' and he remembered exactly where he was and who he was surrounded by, these were soldiers, his soldiers and the enemy had just come into their house and was now it was time for him to pay. Rising up to his full height Jaune turned around just in time to block another side kick, but this time he shoved back hard enough to push Mercury back into a cartwheel and then into a backflip to regain his footing. Jaune then launched his shield at Mercury's legs which made a resounding CLANG that echoed around the cemetery and made Mercury lean over forward to stop himself falling on his back, Jaune capitalised on this moment and ran in with a right uppercut, just as he caught his shield heading back to him and then used it to clothesline Mercury over and into the ground. Mercury tried to recover into a backwards roll and then strike with a double footed up kick to Jaune's back, but he was met be a shield striking him in the stomach, since Jaune had learned how quickly he recovered and wasn't taking any chances. Luckily though for Mercury he had crumpled around the shield, removing the 'Captain' of his legendary weapon and leaving him virtually defenceless against a superior opponent.

"Without your weapon now Arc, this fight is only going one way."

"That was quite a loud CLANG I heard, something wrong with your legs?" asked Jaune curiously

"Grrrr." Growled Mercury as he dived at Jaune and threw a punch catching him around the face and then following through with a second punch around the face and almost making a third punch connect around his face, yet Jaune managed to step in and lock his whole body around the arm and throw him over his body and slam Mercury into the ground, while he was down there Jaune punched him around the face. As he pulled back for another punch Mercury shifted his body and avoided the strike and simultaneously struck with his knee, driving it into Jaune's ribs. Using the arm that Jaune had left away from his body, Mercury pulled on it and used it to help roll him over Jaune's back, twisting him in to a bent over arm-bar and then kicked him in the face with a front kick, sending him sprawling into the dirt and gravel. Mercury then kicked him over so that he was lying on his back now instead of face down in the dirt; however much he deserved it for what he had put Mercury through.

"That's more like it, grovelling in the dirt." Sneered Mercury as he kicked Jaune in the stomach.

"Are you ready to join your friends?" he asked condescendingly

"Yes." Jaune breathed out, although Mercury didn't seem to hear him as he was starting to monologue.

"You know I have no idea how you managed to defeat Ares and Athena, the supposed champions of Mistral. Dr Watts told me you did it solo, but I know you had to have had help. They were tough, not my level as I destroyed them when they challenged me, but still worth the challenge. Yet for all the enemies that you defeated, here you lie, beaten by me. No one to save you, you truly are alone in this world. YOUR LIFE IS MINE."

Mercury raised his foot above Jaune's head and prepared to stomp down and end the man who had caused him so much pain and agony throughout his long lifetime, and once Jaune was dead he could finally rest, He always knew that somehow Arc had managed to survive the rocket and the fall into the ocean, and that burning desire in him to finish the fight that they had been roaring, to kill the only person that had managed to escape him and now he had the chance. He lowered his foot to strike with all the power he could and Jaune closed his eyes in acceptance.

But death never came, Mercury was knocked off of Jaune as the shield bashed into his back, flinging him over Jaune and down the path landing away from Jaune and his mysterious saviour. Said saviour then held out a hand in front of Jaune who had opened his eyes when he heard the tumbling of the assassin, taking the hand he was helped up to his feet by the saviour and got a good look at … her?

The woman was wearing a dark one piece body suit that covered her entire body, there was extra amour around her legs going all the way up to her thighs and very prominent heels, her arms were covered in the material, but it was where the amour was the sleekest, along with around her midriff. She wore a beautiful silver neckless and a pure black mask where her amber eyes stared deeply into Jaune's blue. The only part of her not covered were the two cat ears on the top of her head that twitched around, proving to Jaune that she was a cat faunus.

"Who the hell are you?" asks Mercury as he stands up, glaring in disbelief at the cat woman who had appeared out of nowhere.

To her credit, the cat woman doesn't flinch under the glare of the master assassin. Instead she simply hands Jaune the shield she used to knock down Mercury and then flex's her wrists and causes claws to extend out of her finger tips. She crouched down into a pouncing position, looking exactly like a cat about to strike at her prey. Mercury sneered and muttered about stereotypical faunus, always ready to get on their knees for humans.

Mercury charged forward and to his combatants, but is beaten to the punch or in his case; kick, by the cat woman who shoots forward jamming her claws into his shoulders, tackling him to the floor. After letting out a wince of pain, Mercury garbs the hands still on his shoulders and bring both feet up, planting them on her chest and kicking her over him, expecting her to hit the ground. And she does, but like all cats, this woman manages to twist in the air and land on her feet. With Mercury now facing away from him, Jaune speeds forward and strikes with a hook punch at his ribs, assisted by his shield, the added force of the object makes Mercury lean into the attack more than he normally would and as he turns his head to look in Jaune's direction, his other fist hits him right across the face. While bent over the cat woman speeds towards him, quick as a cheetah, and slashes up his chest with her claws, making six cut lines appear on his chest. Not deep enough to deal any permanent damage, but enough to draw blood and leave a nasty scar once it had healed. A front kick from Jaune then sent Mercury flying away (they always did as that serum must have given Arc some instructions about not skipping leg day) and tumbling down the gravel track.

Sensing another opportunity, and knowing that with a fighter of Mercury's calibre they don't come often, Jaune threw his shield at him, however Mercury was now familiar with this song and danced out of the wall of the cursed Frisbee by rolling to the side. However, Mercury didn't count on the shield rebounding off the ground, hitting a nearby lamppost and then coming back to strike him from behind, knocking him into the ground again.

"Give up Mercury." Ordered Jaune as he caught the shield and approached Mercury's fallen body, the man twisting in pain and breathing fires of anger.

"Never, this world is mine now, you have no place in it. You are a **Relic,** made to be forgotten." Spat Mercury, burning a hole through Jaune's head.

"I don't know much about the future, however I do know about the past; you lost. You always do, it doesn't matter if I am here, or not."

Mercury, took several deep breathes and then slowly reached around to his back pocket and pulled out a device that he pressed with his thumb and a count down appeared on the screen of it.

10

9

It was an explosive and Mercury tossed it over Jaune and it landed at the feet of the cat woman, without even thinking about it Jaune jumped forward and removed his shield from his arm, he then placed it down on top of the explosive, using the inner of the shield as it curved and the edges laid flat against the ground. Jaune then put his full body on top of the shield and tried to hold it down as best as he could, hoping that it would be enough to protect the cat woman who had saved him, and stop the graves from being damaged.

2

1

BOOM

The wisps of smoke came up from under the shield as the explosion had destroyed part of the ground and given it cracks to spill out of. The rest of the area was completely fine; Jaune's shield had stopped the explosion from damaging anything, the shield its self was completely undamaged, the straps could do with replacing, but the shield just had some smoke marks that would wash off easily when water was applied.

"Heh, looks like that worked out alright for us." Said Jaune as he slid off his shield and sat on the ground looking around for the cat woman, however noticing she wasn't there he panicked slightly.

"Ma'am? Ma'am?! Where are you?!" That's when he spotted a piece of paper fluttering on top of one of the graves, held down by a piece of stone to make sure that the breeze didn't take it away. It was also in the last place that Jaune had seen the cat woman standing. Standing up and lifting his shield up, Jaune was greeted by the sight of a small crater that the explosion had caused, this reminded him of Mercury, but when he looked over he couldn't see the assassin anywhere. Good riddance. Picking up the note presumably left behind by the cat woman, Jaune read the only two words on the paper.

'Suit's you.'

* * *

Huh!

Who could that be?

Who do we know that is a cat?

Wh- Yeah it's Neon, I'll tell you now, no point keeping it a secret as you would already have guessed correctly.


	5. New Face(s)

Chapter Five: New Face(s)

The Bullhead pulled over the graveyard and Ren spotted Jaune standing near the entrance chatting to an old man, after landing in the car park the team disembarked the Bullhead and made their way over to the Captain. As they drew closer they noticed that his t-shirt and trousers had dirt marks all over them, most of his arm had some cuts on it, the shield was covered in smoke and even smelt like it, but despite all of that he gave a massive grin when he saw them coming towards them.

"Hello." Jaune said, waving his arm around lazily with an easy smile, the wind picking up his blonde hair and the sun catching it slightly in the low light. Despite how good he looked all messy like that Yang couldn't help but get quite angry when looking at him.

"HELLO!" She yelled as her eyes shifted to red, something that Ren noticed, and thus thanked whatever force was out there that he wasn't Jaune right now.

"Your welcome." Muttered Nora to him, and that caused him to freeze up, he knew that she had used some kind of mind ability on Jaune earlier, but could she read his mind right now? Or could she read his mind all the time?

"What the hell do you mean hello?!" asked Yang while still yelling at him, waving her hands in the air. Ruby then joined her at her side and glared at Jaune with her hands on her hips, Ren was willing to bet good money that she was going to start waggling her finger around at him and telling him off for not calling them once Jaune explained himself.

"Uh yeah, it's what you say in greeting people you know." Replied Jaune, sensing that he was in the presence of two very dangerous women he backed away slowly. Yang growled at his response, clearly this wasn't the time for Jaune's sarcasm, but when Ren looked closer he realised that it was genuine confusion, which was bad for him but good for Ren's amusement, he wasn't as stoic as most thought he was and he knew a good comedic opportunity when he saw one.

"What happened to you?" asked Ruby in what she most likely thought to be her intimidating voice, although Jaune did answer so maybe the voice worked on some people. Jaune let out a sigh and gestured to the Bullhead, and started walking towards it with the others all following him and he said that 'he would tell them on the way back.' This proved to be false as Jaune spent most of the ride trying his hardest not to throw up all over the place, even with Nora cheering him on, as for some reason even when Ren explained to her about vomit the first time, it didn't register to her that motion sickness was actually a bad thing to happen to somebody, so for the whole trip back to the mansion Jaune struggled while Nora cheered for him to chuck his guts up, needless to say Ren was sighing the whole way back and doing his best to help out the Captain by directing Nora's attention to other things around the ship.

When they did land and make their way into the mansion Jaune sat them all down around the meeting room table; they had made sure that the holo-screen with the data download was off so as not to shock Jaune even more than he most likely was. He then told them about everything that had happened, who Mercury was and why he hated Jaune so much, how he was saved by the cat woman and then the explosion that he stopped. Ren was quite intrigued by the cat woman person as he knew from his time at BEACON a person that matched that description, but she hadn't left her kingdom in years, so he wondered why she was only now coming out, if it really was her that saved Jaune.

"So she had on an entire black suit." Asked Ruby sceptically

"It was more like a kind of amour, a really sleek form fitting amour, it would offer a lot more movement than your amour." Replied Jaune

"Pft, my amour is cooler, it- it-it-" stuttered Ruby trying to think of anything she could say about her amour. Yang leaned in with a big grin on her face and opened her mouth, presumably to say something stupid like a pun.

"Cat got your tongue?" asked Ren nonchalantly, shooting Yang a small smirk as he beat her to the punchline. 'That will teach her to try and throw me in battle.' He thought to himself feeling very smug and with very good reason.

"HAHAHAHAHAHA." Laughed Nora; leaning her head back and exploded into uncontrollable laughter. Jaune cracked a smirk and chuckled a little, while Ruby turned red at being the butt of the joke, but Ren could spot a small grin on her face when she hid her face. Yang on the other hand, glared at Ren with murderous intent and let out a feral growl, muttering about how hers was going to be funnier. Ren highly doubted that as he also heard her mumble 'feline jealous', which spoke for itself about how bad it actually was.

"I was wondering if she was also a member of the team that I haven't met yet." Said Jaune, as he was scanning their faces for an answer.

"CATASTROPHY!" Shouted Yang looking around to make sure everyone else got the joke; they didn't.

"That joke was." Responded a deadpan Ren

"No she is not a member of the team. Although since she saved your life, maybe we should ask her to join us." Said Ruby. Answering the question that Jaune had posed.

"Speaking of the team." Said Jaune as he stood up from his seat next to Yang and took a deep breath, preparing for a speech. "Thank you, that how I wanted to start this all out. When I woke up I had no clue what was going on, but you guys took the time to walk me through it. I'm not completely used to it, I don't think I will ever be fine with it, but if I join you guys, I know you will help me get back into the world. Who better to help a misfit than a whole group of them?"

Ruby and Yang grinned at each other and then back at Jaune, with Yang tapping him on the elbow with a light punch, Ren gave him a respectful nod of his head and a slight smile. Nora on the other hand, dashed around the table and tackled him in a big bear hug laughing in joy, Yang then leapt on the two of them joining in the bear hug, Ruby considered it and dived for the trio and Ren sighed and walked over to them, waiting for them to stand up before giving Jaune a handshake, which he thought was a big show of affection. Nora didn't think so and asked them to hug (using her hammer, apparently she was a big fan of tough love).

"Well team, we saved the island of Vytal from giant snakes, Jaune joined the team and beat up an assassin so I think that calls for some rest, I'll be in my lab. I got something I want to work on with my amour." Instructed Ruby, Yang and Nora grinned at each other evilly and then at Jaune, Ren sighed as he knew exactly what they were going to do.

"We are going to test the limits of your shield Jauney, see if it can handle the might of my hammer!" Ordered Nora.

"It should hold up." Jaune raised the shield up in front of him and examined it closely. "Nothing so far has made a scratch on it, I just need to add better straps on to it and then we can start."

"Nothing in all the Realms can withstand my hammer." Declared Nora proudly.

"Cough I can cough" said Yang, trying very hard to be discrete. Silently Ren couldn't believe that he was on a team with so many children in adult bodies, he almost contemplated going back to BEACON.

After that happened Ruby did exactly as she said and headed towards the laboratory and began working on improving her amour, ever since Cinder and her attack on Vale Ruby had an idea of what she wanted to upgrade. She knew that there were going to be times when she was without her amour, but would need it in tense situations so she was going to try to make it come to her. It wouldn't be that different from how it suited up on her now, however instead of all at once, it would come in different parts. While Ruby was working in the lab, Ren also was while making sure to keep an eye on the video that was transmitting from the training room, this way if he thought that Jaune was getting beaten around too much by Nora and Yang he would step in and try to be the voice of reason. Currently he was creating more arrows while also adapting them so that he could fit more on his person, this way he wouldn't run out of arrows mid fight.

Ren almost did run out of arrows during the fight with the giant snake/dragon monsters, because Ruby thought that there was only going to be the one monster so she had only given Ren four arrows, and after he shot the first three in the original beast, he had then used the fourth and final to pierce another's eye, stopping it from eating Nora. Surprisingly she didn't take to kindly to almost being eaten and smacked it so hard with her hammer it back flipped a full three hundred and sixty degrees, and then Yang landed on top of it turning it into dust. All in all the fight was a great display of their power and effectiveness at defending people, they also worked very well together as a team.

The addition of Jaune was indeed a welcome one, and Ren hoped that with enough time he would become a critical member of the team and of the friendship they were all building together. Something that he said earlier really stuck out for Ren when he thought about it.

" _Who better to help a misfit than a whole group of them?"_

Looking at the group as a whole they did indeed fit together very well, but when compared to the rest of the world they had; a genius without any equal, the strongest woman in the world, a literal goddess, a legendary soldier from the worst war in the history of Remnant and him, a master marksman that never missed anything in his life. They truly were a very odd group of people and they would have no chance if they would have stayed with BEACON, the agents would alienate them from everyone, simply because they were different. Here however, they did all fit together, because they were the only people that knew what it was like to be something weird and different.

In the training room, Jaune was being worked very hard by the two strongest on the team. Nora's idea to test the limits of his shield and his own idea to test the limits turned out to be very different. Naturally they went with her idea of throwing everything they could at it to see which would get more damage, however since the shield couldn't stand up on its own Jaune had to stand behind it and hold it. Of course he didn't have to stand behind it, but when Yang suggested that he was going to make a young woman such as herself stand behind it while things were thrown at her, Jaune realised he didn't have much of a choice since she had played on his chivalry. So now he was positioned behind his shield and they were throwing weights at him with various degrees of strength, Jaune was surprised to find out that Nora was the more careful of the two while Yang launched them as hard as she could at him. When he asked her why she couldn't take more care with Ruby's equipment, she responded with.

"Are you asking for help now?"

Jaune then realised that she might be quite angry with him because he fought a master assassin without asking for any back up or calling for BEACON, but in his defence he didn't have a radio on him and there was no way he would have been able to make it to a phone box and put in the number needed, not that he knew the number for BEACON anyway. When he did try to explain this to Yang, she gave him a very similar look to what he had seen Raven give Qrow on more than one occasion, so he shut up and took it like a man.

They had been in the training room for a while now and nothing had managed to damage his shield, all of the weights that they had thrown had either broken or they had bent out of shape. Yang even tried striking it with her fists, but nothing happened. Jaune wasn't even moving backwards when they had been throwing the weights at him, it was like the shield took all of the power out of the impact of the objects. Some of the objects had been thrown with an extreme amount of force but when it hit the shield, it would just slide down and thump on to the floor. Jaune would stand exactly in the same position without moving, in fact the only time that he was forced to move back was when Yang started to move forward while punching and he instinctively took some steps backwards, but even then Yang figure that was more combat nature than her forcing the shield back. It even took a hit from Nora's hammer without any problem, something that Yang had some issue with and that had even managed to take down Cinder, countless frost giant creatures, the mechanical monsters in the mountains and the dragon monster beat thingys. Yang would count this training session as a success for now.

Nora was very impressed with the shield, she believed it to be as finely crafted as her hammer was, although it probably did not contain the power of the sky like hers did, however she would not be surprised if it had the power of the earth as she noticed that the soldier didn't move at all when they were attacking him with the weights and other objects. It even took her hammer and stopped it dead on, although there was a little shockwave from the impact and Nora thought that maybe they could make an even bigger one if they directed the shield more and she struck harder. It would be interesting to see in battle that she was sure of.

"Salutations, Ruby, Ren, Best Girl and Thunder Thighs. I am sure you would be pleased to know that the information that you have recovered has been decrypted. Would you like for me to go through it over night? Or leave it for you to do in the morning?" said Penny out of the blue, completely surprising Jaune and causing him to jump and hold his shield in a defensive position in front of him while looking around for the source of the voice.

"The house has its own voice." Said Nora to the confused captain. "It is quite disconcerting."

"…Yeah, I can understand that."

"Greetings, Captain Jaune Arc of Vale. I am Penny." Came the voice again, startling Jaune once more. "If you need anything just ask. I am accessible throughout the entire house."

"Okay." Replied Jaune. "You can just call me Jaune, I don't mind."

"Sensational, if you need anything just ask Jaune." Responded Penny still in her very enthusiastic voice.

As the three left the training room, they were met by the other two members of the team. Ruby decided that since it was so late they should wait until morning before they went through the information. Ren asked Penny if she could group the information in several different topics so that when they examined the data, they could do so in the most efficient way. Penny said she would get started on that right away, as well as informing them that dinner was ready if they would like it. Dinner turned out to be several large pizza's, Nora was loving it as she had never had a pizza before and naturally it was up to Ren to show her the best way to eat one, and it was not as Yang suggested by folding the whole thing in half and trying to shove as much in her mouth as possible. Jaune enjoyed the pizza, it was certainly nicer than the ones he had back in his time and defiantly better than any rations that the army had provided him with.

They then sat around and tried to get Jaune back up to speed with the times, nothing that would over whelm him. Yang suggested that they watch specific movies to help him adjust to the times, Nora then asked what movies were and Ren explained to her while Yang and Ruby got a taste of what the Captain did in his spare time in the military. He ended up telling them a couple of stories about their parents and how they acted around each other, unfortunately this caused Jaune to have a heavy sense of longing for his friends and family, so the stories were cut quite short. Nora then decreed that since today was in fact a Thursday and was named after her; which confused them all until she explained that when she came to this planet several hundred years ago they thought she said her name was Thor, this day would always remain a pizza day forever.

Jaune was still shocked that she was that old and that she was an actual goddess, all be it one of thunder, lightning and the sky. He didn't talk about it that much, but he considered himself to be a fairly religious man, and the idea that there was more than one god was a little bit weird. He was defiantly, positively, absolutely, certain that Nora was not the creator on the world, as he knew that God did not dress like that, he might have had some strange outfits, but Jaune didn't ever remember seeing him in a skirt, although he might be wrong. Jaune can still remember when he asked her if she really was a goddess on the flight to BEACON, in between his motion sickness.

"Yeah I am, I'm not the strangest goddess or god though; my brother is the father of a giant wolf and giant serpent. Some people even think that he is the father of grandma in Hel, but that was because the language it was written in was all muddled up."

He wasn't going to lie but that almost made him want to throw up even more, however he saw the look in her eyes and he believed her wholeheartedly, this woman was a Goddess and also slightly mad. Still he didn't argue with her as the pizza was very good and if they had this every Thursday then he would be happy to partake in the activity, maybe the food could help him out in this timeline. After dinner had been finished and Yang, Nora and Jaune had finished off all the remnants of the food, the team decided to head up to bed. Jaune walked into his room and Ren patted him on the back, not asking him if he was alright, but still checking up on him in a far more comforting way. Jaune turned and nodded at him and Nora who had joined up by Ren's side.

"Good night Jauney."

"Goodnight Nora, Ren."

With that said and done Jaune walked into his room, placed his shield down on the desk that was in the corner and changed out of the t-shirt and trousers he had on for the whole day and climbed into bed, laying down and then closing his eyes. Strangely enough tonight he had no nightmares of the war.

* * *

As he was coming to realise that this would be the normal thing to happen, Ren woke up very early compared to his companions. Thus meaning he would get to start his morning routine unimpeded as per usual. He started off as he always did, going to get some tea to ready himself for the exercise, then he moved outside and went to his favourite spot in the garden, right near the pond and near several redwood trees. Positioning himself correctly he performed several of his stretches and then began to start on his Kata, however as he was halfway through performing his starting move he noticed that there was something moving quickly out of the corner of his eye. Turning towards the thing he noticed in his peripheral, he saw a mess of blond hair shoot around the corner of the mansion and sprint into the woods, a couple of second latter Jaune then appeared coming towards Ren, going at full sprint. Normally this would be met with some worry and resulting in Ren going into a combat stance, however Ren was certain that Jaune was not going to attack him, and was proven correct as the man sprinted past Ren and chucked out a quick good morning to him on his speedy way past.

Shaking his head and taking up a ready position Ren began his Kata again and was halfway through when he heard Jaune coming towards him again, still in a full sprint. Jaune and made sure to give Ren a large berth, which the marksman was thankful for as he continued his Kata, moving on to the next one as Jaune ran past him again. It occurred to Ren that he might not be the earliest riser amongst his peers any more, as the Captain seemed to be wide awake and judging from the foot prints in the grass, he had been doing this for a long time. Finishing his Kata for the morning, Ren adopted a kneeling position and was contempt on meditating while Jaune continued to sprint past him every fifty-three second. Ren then moved from the kneeling position to the lotus position when he heard footsteps approaching him from behind and was joined by Nora who sat in the same position that he did.

She had decided to join Ren in his morning meditations sometimes as they allowed her to pray to her father and mother back on Valkyrie. She hoped that they heard everything she said and gave her their blessing, she was after all doing this for them and to show them that she was worthy of being the queen when the time came for her father to pass the throne on to her. It was when she had finished her little prayer to them and her brother that she noticed Jaune still running around the garden at a full sprint.

"How long has he been doing that for?" she asked Ren, knowing that she wasn't interrupting his meditation as he had done that before she came out, and now he was just relaxing and enjoying the serenity of the moment.

"Since before I came out here." He responded still with his eyes closed but being able to see exactly what Nora was looking at. Jaune then came to a halt near the front door of the mansion and put his hands on his hips, he looked like he could probably keep going for another hour or more but had told himself to stop and take a rest. He then walked over to Ren and Nora silently singing an old soldiers song that Ren recognized from a couple of veteran members of the Vale army that he had met a couple of years ago. Ren didn't bring up that he knew the meaning behind the words that Jaune was singing, but he filed it away for a later topic of conversation.

"Morning Nora." Said Jaune in greeting as he sat down next to them.

"Sleep well Jauney?" she asked in response while lazily waving at him.

"Uh the bed was a bit too soft." Replied Jaune as he awkwardly scratched the back of his neck and looked away from the duo. Ren knew how he felt, back at BEACON the beds were hard, unforgiving almost pieces of metal, here it was different and while Ren had no problem sleeping anywhere he needed to, he could imagine that for someone who had only slept on either the ground or on the canvas of a camp bed it would be a difficult night's sleep.

"We could help you get a harder bed if you want." Offered Ren, opening his eyes and looking at Jaune, judging his expression and was presently surprised to see that his face showed he liked Ren's offer.

"If it's not too much trouble." He stated looking hopeful and also worried that he might have offended them in some way. "I'm not used to sleeping on a bed like that."

"We can change that after breakfast, for now though-"

"-let's eat." Finished Nora

The three then headed inside the mansion and made their way to the kitchen. Due to him getting up early Jaune had not had anything to eat since the pizza and due to the kitchen still looking like a science laboratory from the future, Jaune had avoided going in it to grab something to eat. Now with Ren and Nora for assistance Jaune felt a lot more confident around the 'kitchen'.

"Want some cereal Jaune?" asked Ren as he pulled out two bowls from a compartment in the wall that just appeared, and reached for a third waiting for Jaune's response.

"Uh, I don't suppose Pumpkin Pete's is still going is it?" Asks Jaune to which Ren smiled and nodded his head, pulling out the third bowl.

"Penny, can you please bring up the Pumpkin Pete's." said Ren to the house; Jaune now realising how insane that sounded, but he guessed that was the future. The table in the centre where they had eaten their pizza on the night before opened up a small compartment on the side and a box of cereal was picked out by Ren.

"There you go Ren." Came Penny's soft robotic voice from the ceiling.

"Thank you." He responded. Jaune took a good look at the box of cereal and was pleased to see that the logo had not changed, nor had the size of the box. What had changed was the mascot on the front of the box; when Jaune was a child they had made the mascot a giant Pumpkin, and then when he turned eighteen the mascot was changed to a soldier, and then when he started to get recognized as Captain Vale he hoped they would change the logo to him as that would be a funny thing for one of his sisters to see, however they kept the logo the same as a soldier for as long as he could remember. This was the first time he had seen someone else on the front of the box, and it was also the first time he had seen a woman on the box as well, Jaune was pretty sure that she wasn't a cartoon character like the Pumpkin was. She was however the most gorgeous woman that Jaune had ever seen in his life; sure Yang, Nora and Ruby were all beautiful, but this woman really stood out to him. He really hoped that she wasn't a cartoon character and that he hadn't compared a fictional character to his new friends.

During the breakfast Ren and Jaune ate in silence while listening to Nora talk about the battle of the snake/dragon monsters that they had fought yesterday, occasionally Ren would jump in to correct the things that Nora was saying so that Jaune didn't think that Ren had somehow managed to kill a hundred enemies with just one arrow, 'not that he couldn't per-say but it was always better to have some secrets' he thought.

"Good morning Ren, Cap'n, thunder thighs." Greeted Yang as she came in to the kitchen and then plopped herself down next to Jaune, at the kitchen table.

"Yang!" cried Nora in greeting while Ren just nodded in his style, meanwhile Jaune muttered under his breath that he still wasn't technically a 'captain'. However quietly he tried to say it he was still heard by both Ren and Yang, while Nora stuffed her face with some cereal after she had greeted Yang.

"Wait, you're not a real captain?" asked Yang in disbelief as she stared at Jaune, Ren fixed her up a bowl of cereal and leaned forward interested in the story that Jaune was going to tell.

"No, it's, uh more of a name than a rank, I kinda just got called it out of nowhere, and it uh, well it stuck, I guess?" Said Jaune as he looked at the faces of Yang and Ren, who still didn't look like they believed him, Nora on the other hand just nodded in acceptance and went back to eating the cereal, pouring more into her bowl.

"There has got to be a story to that, so come on spill it." Ordered Yang, and so Jaune told the story of how he heard that a friend of his was being held capture in the mass prison in Mistral, Haven as it was then known, Ren now informed Jaune that the prison had since been converted in to a school where students could learn almost anything in the world which greatly pleased him. Jaune told them how he snuck in alone after STRQ industries had flown him over, how he had broken out a prisoner named Tuckson who started calling him captain, how when they were escaping together he kept calling him captain, and when they arrived back at the Vale army camp they all cheered for him, chanting captain loudly. Then the name Captain Vale started and now here he was, a false captain, yet everyone keeps calling him that.

Yang loved the story and was laughing for most of it and also amazed that Jaune had managed all of that on his own, and was glad that her dad, aunt Summer and uncle Qrow had helped him out. She was slightly confused about her mother, how could she go from helpful to hating, it didn't add up. Ren was also in awe at how that event had happened, he always did enjoy history and hearing how one of the greatest events in military history happened was incredible, the liberation of three hundred or more prisoners was an amazing feat to accomplish. Nora enjoyed the story as it was worth of being told in her family's hall of banquet. For a mortal this man had achieved something very few of her fellow Valkyrians ever managed to achieve, immortality in the hearts and minds of people.

"Good morning team." Said Ruby entering the kitchen, this caused the coffee machine to start up as Penny knew exactly what her creator and friend would need before she started her day, coffee with an ungodly amount of sugar. After Ruby downed it all in one go to the horror of Yang, Jaune and Ren, she turned to them and started to say.

"So since the information from the scroll is now available for us I th-"

"Apologies for the interruption Ruby, but an object is approaching the mansions airspace; Bullhead class is similar to that of the Atliasian military, scans reveal six heat signatures and they are refusing to respond to any attempts of communication."

Yang shot up out of her chair and crushed the spoon in her hand, turning it into an unrecognisable piece of mush. She looked very panicked and frantic at the news, but Ren placed a hand on her shoulder as Nora jumped around and held her hand in a silent show of their support. Ruby flicked her wrist and Penny brought up an image of the aircraft, she recognised it as General James Ironwood's personal Bullhead. Ruby could imagine several different reasons why he might be coming here unannounced; weapons, Yang, Jaune or Nora, either way he wasn't getting any of them. Jaune was still slightly confused about all that was happening, clearly Yang was scared of the people that were coming, but somehow the voice and Ruby had managed to make a video of the aircraft just appear out of thin air right above his cereal, and he wasn't too much of a macho man to admit that he let out a little cry of shock.

"Let them land-"

"RUBY! They're going to take me!" cried Yang, her eyes turning red

"Nope, I'm not letting that happen. We are a team, and you're my sister, nobody is going to take you away from me." Assured Ruby, as she was holding both of Yang's hands; looking her dead in the eyes. Taking a few deep breathes, Yang found herself calming down and her eyes returned to their normal colour, she muttered a silent "Okay." And then everything seemed to be fine, however Nora had her doubts about the reason for this visit by the General something something, she forgot the name, sue her.

The team then decided that they would head out to meet their esteemed guests; Nora and Ren already had on their combat gear as they had planned the day before to do a little bit of sparing together, well Nora planed it and asked Ren to join her, nicely, with her hammer. Yang then went and grabbed her combat gear and Jaune who didn't have an of his old amour as it had been damaged due to the fight with Dr Watts, the explosion and the fall and was simply too much for the amour and it had been broken beyond repair, instead he just grabbed his shield and stayed in his t-shirt and jogging bottoms.

Standing outside and watching the Bullhead lower itself on to the ground in front of them, Ruby was very thankful that the garden they had was massive and that there was enough space to land about four more Bullheads with ease. Hopefully they wouldn't bring in any more Bullheads because then the already antsy Yang might jump away and escape. As it so happened she was standing at the back of the group with Jaune and Nora stood in front of her on either side, almost shielding her and Ren was stood next to Ruby. While they had been waiting for Yang and Jaune to grab their gear, Ren had told her about the times that he had met with General Ironwood and it seemed like a good idea to have him ready to greet their guest.

The Bullhead then opened up and the six figures walked down the ramp and Nora was able to get a good look at this Admiral something something; He was tall, with slightly grey hair and a hard look in his eyes this man demanded respect from everyone he met and he didn't care about respecting them back. Nora knew those type of people, hell she had turned them into dust when they challenged her, and this man wouldn't get any respect from her so long as he continued on that path of his.

The other five people that followed him down the ramp were different from him, none of them were wearing the same uniform, as she thought was accustomed to soldiers. The leader was even Taller than the Commander something something, and boy was he an unattractive man and he was somewhat ginger. The other three men behind him were also unattractive; one had all his hair all spiked up and was green, another had longer hair than Nora and it was blue, and the third man had short blond hair, but didn't seem to have eyes.

They all walked down the ramp confidently and with purpose, however the sixth person coming down looked nervous and unsure of what she was doing. Where the four men were unattractive, this woman was unbelievably beautiful, long red hair, bright green eyes, nice muscular body but still feminine and she was also quite tall, probably shorter than Jaune but still taller than Nora was, which wasn't really hard. Glancing at her teammates, she saw that Yang was looking at the ground and then everywhere the newcomers weren't, Jaune was staring straight at the tall ginger man not in a threatening way but in a curious way, Ruby was looking anxiously everywhere and Ren was looking right into the Sargent something somethings eyes.

"I am General Ironwood, for those of you who do not know me." Okay so he was a General, meh Nora was a goddess so take that yo-

"Yang Xaio-Long will be coming with us now." Like hell she will, you will have to go through me and my motherf-

"General perhaps we can talk about this inside, before you start making demands of us." Aw, good old Ren always so calm and cool and diplomatic and handsome and smart and funny and handsome, mum would like him.

"Agent Ren, I am… interested to see you in this… new area of employment." Said General Ironwood and how dare he talk to my man like that, I am about to sma-

"It serves a greater purpose than BEACON. Better people as well." The General considered this and then scoffed.

"Helping a mad woman break down-town, destroying a mountain, abducting a national hero and causing panic when fighting monster; no doubt from her world." Said the General; pointing a finger at Nora and then looking at her with distaste. Ren then stepped forward, not backing down from the General and corrected him.

"Stopping a mad woman, taking down a group of would-be terrorists, helping a hero and those monsters were not from Nora's world, but that didn't matter because we still stopped them and nobody got hurt."

General Ironwood tensed up at this and glared down at Ren, then he turned his gaze over to Yang briefly and then finally locked on to Jaune, and when they did he stepped past Ren and made his way over and held out his hand.

"Captain Arc, a pleasure I am sure." Jaune did shake the man's hand and kept eye contact with him throughout.

"Sir." Was all Jaune had to say to the General, which in itself Nora realised was a pretty big insult, Jaune was considered to be something of a legend on this world and for this legend to not say anything more to the General was probably quite insulting. The General seemed to realise this as well and he didn't look happy. As he made to grab Yang to almost drag her to the Bullhead Jaune sidestepped in front of him and grabbed his wrist, this caused the five people that came with the General to tense up. Jaune then released his wrist, but still stood in front of Yang.

"Fine." Spat the General. "We will talk inside; however these three 'enhanced' will wait outside."

"Then the same will be said for your guests." Replied Ren as he eyed the General, as though testing him to argue with him.

"Winchester, Thrush, Nikos, wait out here and keep an eye on them, Lark, Bronzewing, you are with me."

Ruby and Ren then headed inside, leading the General and his two escorts. When they passed Yang Ruby smiled at her reassuringly and Ren nodded to Jaune and Nora, signalling them to be on their guard. Ruby personally didn't think that they would even lower it for a second, Ren and her had the harder job of the team. Trying to convince General Ironwood to leave without him starting a fight, but luckily for the team, Ruby still had the recording of when she asked little woman to order her troops to leave the STRQ weapons behind after the fight with Cinder.

As they lead General Ironwood to the meeting room where they could hopefully talk some sense into the irate man, Ren was careful to keep an eye on the two that he had brought with him. Ren knew that Sky Lark was an engineer and mechanic on multiple different things in the military bases, but didn't know why he was here as he was not combat ready. Dove Bronzewing on the other hand was one of the most ruthless killers that Ren had ever heard of or met, he had more confirmed kills on his hands than the top ten agents in BEACON all put together, and then most likely doubled. However what did worry him were the three people that were outside with Nora, Jaune and Yang.

Outside Nora was eyeing up the three others still out there with them. Yang was fidgeting like crazy and kept on thinking that if she got a good head start then nobody would be able catch her. Jaune however stopped her thinking by placing a hand on her shoulder and smiling at her, easing her nerves. The two other men saw this and smirked evilly at each other.

"So you're the legendary Captain?" Asked the tall man with what was a sneer that seemed ever present on his face. Jaune looked a little surprised at being called out by the strangers, as he fully expected to just stand in silence opposite them.

"Uh I don't know about legendary." Jaune tried to joke to ease the tension that he could feel in the area, he also gave his best smile to see if that could win them over, it seemed to work on the red haired woman as she gave a small smile but then disappeared almost immediately.

"Yeah neither do I, you look pretty pathetic. I mean who fights in a war and doesn't kill anyone? What kind of man are you?" asked the tall man

Jaune was stunned that someone would think that killing was a sign that you were a man. "You are right I didn't kill a single person in that war, and I am happy with the example that sets. I imagine if you ask any soldier, they would wish they could take back the lives they took, and I respect that maybe sometimes it is unavoidable to take a life, I really do as I almost killed someone once. But I always do my best to find another way; I just wish everyone else had that chance." This was when Jaune looked the man dead in the eye and shot him a very hard look that made him almost take a step back in fear. "Or that they had humanity to realise there was another way."

Yang gave a smirk and Nora had to hold herself from chuckling at the very obvious insult to the tall man, however he didn't seem to realise that Jaune had called him less than a human. Neither did the other man who just stared at Nora's giant hammer, however the red haired woman seemed to realise what Jaune was getting at and let out a tiny smile that Yang and Nora managed to catch. The tall man then must have realised that he was being made fun of from the smiles on the three girls faces and stepped forward.

"Why you l-" he started to say with clenched fists

"CARDIN." Shouted the red haired woman while stepping in front of him and placing her hand on his chest to hold him back, meanwhile Jaune had already slipped off his shield, ready far faster than either the tall man or the red haired woman were when they moved into their positions. Both of them now realise that Captain Vale was ready to fight right here right now and they quickly have a silent conversation with their eyes that the red haired woman wins and the tall man then steps back.

"Just remember who leads this squad 'champion'." He snarls at her, shooting Jaune one last look of hate. Which seemed a bit dramatic as they had only just met, but bullies will be bullies.

"I'm sorry." Said the woman; turning to Jaune just as he shouldered his shield behind him again.

"I can imagine you say that for him a lot." Observed Jaune.

"Yes, I do."

Jaune hold out his hand to the beautiful red haired woman, who looks very familiar to him, but maybe she just has one of those faces.

"Jaune Arc; short, sweet rolls off the tongue, ladies love it." CRAP CRAP CRAP, had he seriously just said that? He hadn't said those words since he tried it on his crush back in his home village. Granted she was probably either eighty or dead right now but that wasn't the point. Why did he ha-

"hahaha, I'm certain they do." She giggled, that was usually a good sign right, unless it was laughing at him not with him, usually he could tell which was which, but it had been a while since he had been picked on.

"Thanks, um what's your name?" The red haired woman looked a little surprised at this, although he did wonder why as she probably knew that he was from sixty years ago in the past, and it's not like she was alive back then.

"The hell? You don't know who she is? You stupid or so-" began Cardin before the red haired woman interrupted him rather frantically, cutting off whatever else Cardin was going to say.

"I'm Pyrrha; Pyrrha Nikos, it's nice to meet you." She said as she grabbed his hand which he was still holding out subconsciously, having not pulled it back. Jaune noticed that she had a very strong handshake, and hoped that his felt strong to her. For some reason she looked very excited during the handshake and was staring right into his eyes in wonder.

"It's nice to meet you too Pyrrha, you have pretty hair." You idiot, why the hell would you say that, she might be the enemy and you just had to open your mouth and say that to her, I mean it's true but come on. Pyrrha blushed a little bit and shyly looked at the ground before turning her eyes back up to Jaune's.

"T-Thank you, you have nice eyes." Oh come on, really you are going to say that to the guy, he's basically a legend in this world and you try to court him, okay he does have nice eyes they are a beautiful blue, but could you not think of anything different?

"Thanks, my dad and I are the only ones in our family with the blue eyes, all of my sisters have green and my mum had brown." Oh no, this guy didn't know when he was being courted did he? When Ren was telling Nora about Jaune and how he became Captain Vale, she remembered about how he wasn't always made of muscle and was a skinny looking thin stick. Nora could presume from that, he probably didn't get that many women complementing him and thus would not know if a woman was attracted to him. Well this was going to be awkward, funny but awkward.

Jaune then realised that he had spoken about his family in the present tense and not in the past tense, and a sad look crossed his features. This was something that Pyrrha noticed immediately as she was stood right in front of him and decided to try and take his mind off of whatever he was thinking of.

"I've read about you a lot!" she blurted out and then instantly felt self-conscious. Why, oh why did you have to say that? Surely you could have thought of something different to say to him, but no you had to come off like some kind of crazy fan-girl. Did anybody else think about this when they spoke to her?

"Yeah, apparently I made it in to the history books. And got a statue. Well several statues, so that's… great, just great." Oh no, now he was acting like a hurt puppy, and judging from the look in this Pyrrha's eyes she was really drawn to that. Not that Nora could really blame her; Jaune was an attractive, well-muscled man, that didn't look to be afraid to emote. And from the company that Pyrrha had around her, she could probably use someone kind and caring, unlike the Cardin guy.

"Yeah it can be a bad thing; people put you up on a pedestal-"

"Look at you like something you're not-"

"-And make you feel alone." Finished Pyrrha with a sad smile on her face, to which Jaune returned it with his own. Jaune then realised that he didn't know how this woman would know the feeling; maybe she had mind reading powers, could that be a thing of the future?

Just as Jaune was about to ask her how she knew about the thoughts that he was having, there was an explosion from inside the house that rocked the whole building and caused everyone to turn towards the sound, Yang and Nora both called out for Ruby and Ren respectively, meanwhile Jaune slipped his shield off his shoulders and jumped in front of Yang just as a fist struck at her, blocking the punch that Cardin had tried to hit her with.

Nora and Yang then jumped into action just as Jaune tilted his shield and kicked Cardin back to where he was originally, landing right next to the other man and Pyrrha. Looking at the three of them; Cardin and the other man had looks of anger and glee on their faces, however Pyrrha looked pained, like she was being forced to do something she really didn't want to do. Jaune turned to Yang and Nora, he knew that they were going to be fighting these people and he had to be smart; they wanted Yang.

"Yang get going, we can take them." Yang nodded and braced herself to jump away, Cardin turned to Pyrrha.

"Get her." Was all he said and the moment Yang had left the ground Pyrrha shot a blast of black energy out of her hands and knocked Yang off course of wherever she wanted to jump to, she then took off into the sky after her and together they collided in the air, landing somewhere in the forest in Ruby's massive garden. Jaune and Nora would need to get to her quickly to help Yang out so she could escape and then return when they had all left, however first they would need to deal with the two other unwelcomed quests.

"Russel, if you will."

Then Cardin motions for the other man to do something and Jaune and Nora decide that were not going to wait patiently for this attack to come and made to charge forward to end the fight quickly. That plan however fell apart very quickly once Russel conjured up a mini tornado in his hands and sent it flying towards the duo, Jaune was then forced to adapt his plan and back away from the tornado. Nora on the other hand, jumped through the tornado and swung her hammer completely obliterating the tornado and cancelling the attack altogether. She wasn't the Goddess of Thunder, mistress of the winds and lord of the lightening for nothing after all.

The two men looked quite surprised that Nora was able to destroy their attack very quickly, but that look of surprise was soon turned into pain as a certain shield bounced off Russel's face and smacked into Cardin's face before returning to Jaune's outstretched hand, he then bashed straight into Cardin and knocked him back. Jaune then continued to force Cardin back, his enhanced strength proving to be able to overpower even someone of Cardin's size, but then he started to feel heavier. That is when Jaune noticed the hands around his shield had turned to a shiny metallic colour, Jaune switched up his attack and swept low with his leg only to hit hard metal. Rolling away and standing up straight he saw that Cardin had turned into metal; skin, hair, clothes and even teeth were now all metal, Jaune wasn't confident that he could do any damage to metal man, but he knew someone who could.

While Jaune had thrown his shield and then charged Cardin; Nora had then leapt through another tornado from the one called Russel. He was laughing very hard despite the fact that none of his attacks had any effect on her and she was getting closer and closer to breaking his legs. As he launched another one at her, she decided to let it come over her and once she was certain that his vision was obscured she flew up into the air and then came down behind Russel and tapped him on the shoulder. Russel turned around with a shocked look on his face and finally stopped laughing for the first time since the pitiful fight started.

"BOOP." And that signalled the punch from Nora, and since it was with the strength of a Goddess, Russel was completely knocked out. She then looked over to Jaune and saw him standing in front of a metal man where Cardin was supposed to be, she then noticed that Jaune was dodging all of his punches and kicks and not returning any of his own strikes. Nora supposed that was probably the smart choice as while Jaune might have the strength of ten men, even he couldn't punch through metal; Nora however could and now that Jaune had got Cardin's back to her, she launched her attack.

CLANG

"All the stories I've heard about his shield, every single one said it was unbreakable. Now I have your hammer." And that is when Cardin's metal skin changed from the shiny white of Jaune's shield to the light grey of Nora's hammer. But that isn't where it ended; his body started to crackle with lightning and electricity, along with his fists morphing into hammers.

"So what's the plan now? Heroes." Asks Cardin sarcastically and honestly Jaune didn't quite have one at the moment.

* * *

Once Ruby and Ren had lead General Ironwood and his two followers in to the mansion Ruby felt an air of dread fall over her. She had no idea what the two people with General Ironwood were capable of, the only thing she knew was that they clearly were not enhanced in anyway, otherwise Ren would have told the General to make them wait outside. Ren seemed to know exactly who the two were and his eyes never left the one with blond hair, Bronzewing if Ruby could remember.

Upon entering the meeting room Ruby was glad that Penny had not said a word about the newcomers or made herself known like she usually did. The Atlas military didn't need to know that Ruby had an artificial intelligence, and Ruby would very much like to keep it that way. General Ironwood was the first to take a seat at the meeting room table, making sure that he grabbed the chair at the head of the table, his two soldiers stood on either side of him. Lark looking around at everything and Bronzewing staring right back at Ren, neither of them blinking or even moving that much apart from the rise and fall of their chests.

"This is a nice ceremony Miss Rose, but I will be taking it back with-"

"With the greatest respect, don't call my sister an 'it' please." Interrupted Ruby; feeling a lot braver than she had felt outside for some reason. There was even a nagging voice in her head telling her to smack him, while it was indeed tempting, she ignored it.

"Either way, 'she' will be coming back with me. I have numerous documents, describing how she is my property and that the technology used in her… unfortunate accident was manufactured by Mr Lark here. Anything that comes into contact with that technology automatically belongs to the Atlas military."

"It was your tech?" asks Ruby looking at Lark with a disbelieving look clear as day on her face.

"Yep, built it myself, not a single flaw." He said arrogantly. 'Other than the so called accident that turned my sister in to a walking earthquake' she thought to herself.

"Well done." Ruby said sarcastically. Lark however missed the sarcasm and took it completely as a compliment; something that Ren thought was fitting of his very low social intelligence. While he was thinking this he still kept his gaze on Dove, silently wondering why he would ever agree to be part of this rag-tag military group. He was even more surprised to find that Pyrrha was a part of the group as well, while he knew that she had abilities and that she had also been experimented on, he didn't think that she would have joined up with this group as he had heard of her rather kind nature. All the while he was thinking this he never broke eye contact with Dove, and the same was said for Bronzewing and he was very subtly sizing up Ren and Ruby for weaknesses and open spots in their defences.

"Either way it doesn't matter who built what or how you tricked my sister into unwillingly becoming your lab rat; you are not taking her."

"Would you like me to involve the council? I believe they would love to know about your defiance in the face of an official government body; as well as a council member." Asked General Ironwood, firmly thinking that he had the upper hand in the conversation.

"Funny you should mention the council." Quipped Ruby back, as she tapped her wrist and brought up a video of the aftermath of Cinder's defeat and the Atlas military turning up afterwards, in possession of several of STRQ industries weapons. It then detailed the commander and her reluctance to turn them over until Ozpin turned up and that helped to sway the argument in Ruby's favour. While watching this Ironwood was growing progressively more irate, Sky was confused, but Dove got the silent message that Ruby was sending the three of them; why do you still have MY weapons when I asked for them over a year ago? Subtle power play and nice use of blackmail, he could respect that as he had used that tactic multiple times in his life; everybody had secrets. Even those who claimed to be 'Invincible'.

Ren noticed that the corners of Dove's mouth twitch very slightly for a micro-second, but it was enough for him to see that something was changing between the three other people in the room. Ironwood was losing control and the next best person to pick up control would be the most collected out of the three. Funnily enough Ren heard it before he saw it, the near silent sound of metal being unsheathed.

Dove launched a throwing knife straight for Ruby's carotid artery; death would have been very painful and near instantaneous. It would have been as Ren reacted fast enough to catch the knife out of the air right before it embedded itself in her neck and then flung it towards Sky's shoulder; if he could take out an annoyance then he could focus more on Dove and Ironwood as they were the bigger threats to himself and Ruby, until she could get her amour.

While that was a solid plan for Ren, he didn't count in his bad luck as the knife harmlessly bounced off Sky's shoulder and clattered to the floor. Confused as Ren was certain that Sky was not an enhanced individual, he ripped off his sleeve to show amour that was slowly growing over his arm and becoming bulkier and bulkier. It then produced a missile from a compartment and aimed it at the two Hunter's, however before Sky could turn them into ash, he was blindsided by a flying arm that came through the doors and attached on to Ruby. This arm was then followed by the rest of her amour and attached on to her accordingly.

The off balance Sky them fired his missile up at the ceiling and created a loud explosion that was sure to alert Nora, Yang and Jaune that negotiations had taken a bit of a turn, hopefully they would be okay by themselves for the time being before Ren and Ruby got to them.

With Ruby now fully armoured up and Ren and Dove in a standoff and Sky back on his feet, everyone in the room braced themselves for a fight, almost waiting for someone to fire the starting pistol.

And then Ren heard a loud 'GO!' echo in his head and it was like it was all said it at the same time in all their minds they all moved together simultaneously; Time to work for a living.

* * *

What was a beautiful section of the forest in Ruby's garden was soon becoming a creator in the ground and the aftermath of a warzone thanks to the combined effort of Yang and Pyrrha, and while their destructive prowess was indeed impressive, if they were in their right minds and could see what they were doing not only to the environment and to each other, they would be shocked.

It is true the two of them loved to fight; Yang always had loved boxing when she was younger simply because it provided her with an outlet for all of her anger about not getting taken seriously and for the stress from her job, and a bit of rough housing with her father when she was a lot younger and when he could. Pyrrha was of course famous for her gladiator matches in the Mistral colosseum and her career as a combat pilot and frontline soldier against the white fang and the Grimm cult, and she often relished the challenge of fighting against strong opponents and seeing what she would have to change in her style to assure her victory. However for the two of them it had been awhile since they could find someone where they didn't have to hold back all the time; obviously Yang had Nora to spar, but if they went all out in the training room the mansion and the surrounding area would break into pieces and while going to different Realms and fighting there was fun it was more playful between them than a battle.

Right now however that was different, Yang was almost putting everything in to her fight with Pyrrha and she was scared that she may have to lose control and let the Dragon out to beat her; the last time she did that she broke downtown Atlas. Pyrrha also was pushing herself harder than she had against- ohh that was classified, sorry.

A blast of energy forces Yang to block and take it head on, forcing her back creating a trench in the ground, Pyrrha then follows up with a flying punch that Yang catches and attempts to strike with her other hand, only to have Pyrrha block the strike and lock her arm around Yang's holding her in place. The two now stuck in a battle of strength, glaring right into each other's eyes.

"I'm sorry, but this is my mission to bring you in!" exclaimed Pyrrha as she then freed her hand from Yang's grip and threw her over her shoulder, slamming her into the ground and the kicking her away from her. Yang rolled herself to her feet and side stepped the elbow drop from Pyrrha, punching downwards across her face and then upper cutting and finishing up the combo with a left cross, successfully putting some distance between the two combatants.

"YOUR MISSION!" Yells Yang, diving at Pyrrha who managed to roll out of the way and blast Yang with more dark energy, sending her flying into a tree. She didn't crash through it, merely slumped down to the base of the trunk and grabbed around it to hold herself up while Pyrrha approached behind her to grapple her and force her into submission so that neither of them would get hurt anymore from this fight.

Yang however smacked her with the tree lick a baseball bat and then brought it down on her like a hammer, flattening Pyrrha into the ground like a nail. Yang flung the tree away from her and took several deep breathes, it was getting harder and harder to contain the Dragon and sooner or later she might have to let it out. Then only Nora might be able to stop her, unless Ruby had a Yang buster amour in her inventory.

"DO YOU KNOW WHAT THEY DID TO ME IN ATLAS?" Screams Yang at Pyrrha who was slowly getting up, leaves and bark falling off her as she did, carefully looking in to the iliac eyes of her opponent, and it might have been her imagination but they seemed to be slowly filling with red.

"They tore me apart; subjected my too numerous experiments. I was the only person who survived the procedure; hell I didn't even know it was a procedure. They tricked me, then poked and prodded me 'everywhere', trying to coax the beast out." Yang took in a deep breath and steadied her right hand, that had started shaking from remembering all the times they tried to collect a 'Sample' from her. "I am never going back there."

Pyrrha understood her words, she really did. If she was in Yang's position she would do anything to resist going with her and she would pray that someone would help her and set her free.

'You have a mission to complete.' Said the voice in her head, and it made a compelling point, this is what she signed up for, wasn't it?

'Yeah I do… but at what cost?'

The two fighters squared off against each other and one flew forward and one launched at her with a roar.

One with determination.

The other with reservation.

* * *

'The fight is going well… not for Jaune and me, but it was still going well' thought Nora. While she might not be winning she could still appreciate a good battle and so far this was proving to be one. The tall man known as Cardin had the strength and the power of her hammer, meaning that right now she was fighting herself, only he didn't feel any of the pain that she felt when she was hit by his fists.

As Nora took another swing at Cardin with the hammer it bounced off his chest harmlessly, how could the hammer fight against itself? It didn't make sense. Cardin then knocked Nora back with a overhead smash to the ground, he had figured out that while the lightening was cool, against Nora it didn't do her any harm and so he had stopped using it soon after this discovery.

Jaune then dived up to Nora's side and used his shield to block a horde of pebbles and rocks that were thrown at him by Russel. Compared to Jaune, Nora felt like she was handling this a lot better, while she would have a bruise or two due to her extreme durability, Jaune had cuts all over his right arm and his shins from where Russel had managed to get the parts that Jaune hadn't been able to hide behind his shield. His shirt and trousers were also torn and had a little bit of blood on them from the light cuts he had received; he was also noticeably out of breath.

"We need to get to Yang, can you deal with Russel?" he asked Nora while eyeing up their opponents.

"Yeah, but I can't put a dent in him if he is using …my…hammer!" Nora then realises she had been incredibly stupid and short sighted. "Go I got this!" she shouts to him as she flies towards Russel, grabbing him by his shirt and throwing him towards the ground with a lot of force. He hits it with a loud thud and groans out in pain, just as Jaune punches him in the face before he runs off to where he can hear the sounds of fighting coming from the woods.

Nora then turns to her over opponent and does something that her mother would be very proud of; waits patiently.

Cardin strikes her around the face with a left swing, then a right and then a left again. Meanwhile Nora takes the hits and is forced backwards, but she is still waiting, trying to concentrate. Cardin manages to get in several more strikes before he notices that Nora isn't fighting back.

"What's the matter girl? You scared to fight?" he asks arrogantly

"No, I am trying to concentrate." She says calmly. This irks Cardin and he launches himself at Nora, intended to crush her into paste, but he can't as his whole body is now immobile.

"H-H-HEY! WHAT GIVES?" He yells in response to having his movement restricted like so.

"The hammer is mine to command, and only mine." Says Nora stepping forward and in-front of Cardin. "And you, are made of my hammer."

Nora then flicks her wrist and sends a screaming Cardin hurtling up in to the air, and the higher he gets the louder his screams become.

The harder Nora laughs.

* * *

Back inside the mansion the fight is hitting its full stride; Ren and Dove had started off by throwing whatever objects they possibly could at each other. For Dove it was all of the knifes that he had managed to hide in his sleeves and pockets, most of which had missed Ren or he had been skilled enough to catch the incoming projectile before it hit him. Dove was slightly impressed that the man's reflexes were that quick and that his dexterity was so high, it was almost enough to rival his own ability. For Ren he had mostly focused on dodging out of the way of the incoming items and using the surroundings to limit his opponents line of sight so that he could rebound objects off the floor and wall to attack at different angles, however Dove had taken to throwing his own knifes at whatever Ren was throwing and slowly but surely they were both running out of ammunition.

That didn't bother Ren as much as it should, while it was true he was an excellent marksman, he was an even better martial artist and close-quarters-combat fighter. This meant he was confident enough that a brawl between him and Dove could be settled quite quickly once they had both exhausted all throw-able resources. However Ren did notice that Dove's reflexes and hand-eye coordination were extremely fast, this would possibly mean that he might present more of a challenge in hand-to-hand combat than he originally thought.

Just as a knife flew past his head, Ren then saw Dove reach into his pockets to only draw out nothing and search his other pockets; some might have seen this as a feint, but Ren could tell that he was genially out of knifes. So Ren decided to do the comforting thing and punch him.

Dove stumbled back from the punch and then ducked under the high kick aimed at his face instinctively. Ren then hooked his leg back around and caught his heel on the back of Dove's head with a perfectly executed hook kick that his master would be very proud of.

Bouncing on the balls of his feet in-front of Dove, Ren lifted his hands up into a classic fighting stance; left hand out and at chin height, right tucked back to the side of his head and never break eye contact with your enemy. Dove shook his head in response and then mirrored the same stance as Ren had, and beckoned with a very specific finger for Ren to 'come at him'. Very quickly they fell in to a routine; strike, block, strike, evade, guard, counter, throw something, catch/dodge and then repeat. Dove did note however that Ren indeed was the superior fighter between the two of them, and with his throw-able items limited to rubble he needed a change of scenery; which is how the now found themselves in the kitchen and the fight had shifted into Dove's favour as he was throwing everything he could get his hands on towards Ren.

Over with the other two fighters inside the mansion it was a lot clearer on who was winning the fight. The moment the five people in the room had started the battle Ruby immediately blasted General Ironwood with a low powered bolt of silver energy sending him flying into the wall and knocking him out of the fight. For several reasons; to get rid of the leader and strategist and because Ruby didn't like him that much.

Right now Ruby and Sky were engaged in a high speed battle, Ruby was up in the air of the meeting room and Sky was occupying the ground trying his hardest to keep up with her, however it was very clear who had the superior technology in this fight. Every time Sky attacked with a weapon or a tactic, Ruby would immediately use a system to counter it or out think his tactic in the most bizarre way. Of course that was only a bizarre way to him as Ruby thought it was an incredibly logical choice to make at the time, and when the rest of the team watch the clips later on they also agreed with her.

Sky would shoot missiles at Ruby, hoping that they would knock her out of the air and damage her suit, however she would deploy flares out of her legs and the missiles would explode before they had a chance to impact her. Sky then moved on to a flamethrower hoping to burn her amour and systems, but Ruby released foam that was completely devoid of oxygen and usually found in fire extinguishers putting out the flames, it did make her laugh quite hard as she was now fighting someone who had foam on them.

Sky then used a laser and attempted to cut her amour in half, but Ruby once again out smarted him and showed off her superior technology by activating her shields, deflecting the laser back at Sky and cutting through his amour and destroying the weapon. Meaning that he couldn't use it against her again, which she was grateful for because the shields took a lot of power out of her suit.

At this point Sky was very obviously growing quite desperate and used his freezing tech to try and freeze her amour as nothing could operate when it was below zero, however Ruby was also growing quite bored of the battle and blasted through the ice blast with her repulsors and then tackled him to the ground. She then flies up into the air and he takes off after her, his armour going at a significantly slower speed than her's. As Ruby rockets off ahead of him and up higher than he can track she then blasts him with the full power of her chest piece and dropkicks Sky towards the ground, and together they land about half a mile away from the mansion and Ruby is tempted to leave Sky there but she knows that he might get away without facing any of the consequences, so she grabs him by the back and starts to fly back; hoping that the fighting will all have stopped by the time she gets back.

* * *

'I thought he was supposed to be a great strategist and tactician on the battlefield, so why does he keep doing the same move over and over again?' thought Pyrrha as she fly to the side of the shield that Jaune had thrown at her and then she blasted at his with a bolt of her black energy, to which he rolled out of the way easily. 'Surely he would tr-' her thoughts were interrupted by the force of Yang slamming into her back and smashing her into the ground, but while the force of the attack is something stronger and more surprising than she had experienced when being blindsided like that, Pyrrha was quick to recover than knock Yang off of her body and then duck under another Shield throw from Jaune, tackling him and pining him against a tree.

"Please stop fighting." She begged, even though she barely had the advantage against Yang, and now that Jaune had come along she was very slowly losing the fight as they were wearing her down, she was getting fewer hits in against Yang with Jaune intercepting most of them and drawing her attention, perhaps he really was a great strategist.

While she had him pinned against the tree Jaune was slightly taken back by the tone of her voice, it was as though she was in pain and that hurt him just from hearing it, however he wasn't about to just roll over and let her take Yang from Ruby and the others. His trusty shield always returned to him and smacked Pyrrha in the back of the head, dazing her for a split second and that was all the opening that Jaune needed.

Saying a quick sorry to his mum and sisters about having to hit another woman; he punched Pyrrha around the face with a strong right hook, then drove his elbow into her face and finished that arm up with a back fist, bringing his left arm up for a perfectly executed left cross. Now he knew that these attacks would not hurt Pyrrha as he had seen her take strikes from Yang and only manage to stumble slightly and then hit her back just as hard, but the goal wasn't to hurt her; it was to push her off balance long enough for Yang to wrap her arms around her waist and then lift her over her head and slam Pyrrha down as hard as Yang could with the full force of gravity and her overwhelming strength.

'SUPLEX CITY' Cries Yang in her head, feeling immensely proud of the move and glad that her and uncle Qrow spent so much time watching wrestling together.

As Pyrrha lay there Yang was about to strike her again, as she knew that with an opponent this strong it was best to take any advantage you could get, however one look at Pyrrha showed that fighting her further would end up with Yang possibly killing her; all of the fight had left Pyrrha's features and she looked completely destroyed and that is when Yang felt so bad for her that the fire almost went out inside of her. Jaune then stepped past her and knelt down to Pyrrha's level and made eye contact with her, he was showing her compassion even after what she had done and Pyrrha had no idea why.

"I will never stop fighting, so long as I can still draw a breath. Especially if I believe something is wrong, and I don't know you at all Pyrrha, but I get the sense you have had second thoughts since the moment you signed up for this mission." Said Jaune

'Yes I have.'

'Why should you? You are a soldier, a champion, whatever you do must be right.'

"I-I-" Pyrrha begins to stutter out but is interrupted by the arrival of Nora, who arrives in a brilliant flash of lightening, thunder clouds booming in her wake and blue flames dancing over her body, with the famous hammer gleaming in there light. Yang alone, Pyrrha reconed she might have been able to beat, she might not have walked away easily but she would have won. Yang and Jaune together, that was a bit of a stretch as he levelled out her brute force in to tactical force. However facing The Dangerous Dragon, Captain Vale the living legend and the Goddess of Thunder altogether? Yeah Pyrrha had no chance in that fight.

"We don't want to fight you, I just want you to think about what you are doing." Begged Jaune "Do you know what that really means? I want you to change your mind, reconsider, run. I don't care. Just please stop fighting us, we will only hurt you and I have seen enough hurt to last two lifetimes now." He finished sadly

'He's right'

'No you can take them, you've fought more than three people before and come out on top.'

"I have my orders… I have…" she trailed off as she broke eye contact with Jaune for the first time she could remember since having a conversation with someone.

"Yang go find Ruby, I think I saw her flying that way. Nora go find Ren, best guess is he might still be in the house." Yang spared Pyrrha one last glance and leapt off to find her sister, Nora was about to follow when she gave Jaune a curious glance. "I've got this, believe me." And then Nora was sold and flew back to the house to find her Renny.

'Now you can take him easily, he is a Relic of the past, you are the future.'

'It wouldn't be right'

'Does that matter? You have your orders'

'But what if it's wrong?'

'A little late to grow a conscious isn't it?'

"You know Pyrrha it is never too late to grow a conscious and start questioning orders; would you rather be a good woman or a great soldier?" asked Jaune holding out his hand to her, and she glanced from the hand to his face; completely honest and open to her, there was no sign of deceit or malicious content.

'That path has already been chosen for you, and you have enjoyed it'

'I've let people chose for me for too long now; it's time for me to choose'

' **Perhaps letting the chips fall where they may?'** offered a different voice to the one that Pyrrha was currently conversing with in her head. While the first voice was rich and almost condescending, the second voice was something completely different, deep and seeping into her very soul and the option it gave… now that was a choice Pyrrha could get behind. So for the first time in a long while, Pyrrha did what she wanted and took Jaune's hand, standing up to her full height and smiled brightly at him.

* * *

And that my friends is chapter five, enjoy, and review if you would like, I look forward to any constructive criticism or any questions.

Has anybody seen gen:LOCK, dude episode 4 had me laughing like crazy when they turned up in their RWBY outfits and Cammie 'we need to work on your cursing' 'my cursing's fine' greatest come back ever. and Rooster Teeth talked about gender fluid stuff, honestly don't understand it and had to Google it afterwards and I still don't get it, but so long as nobody forces me to understand it I think I'll be good.

Also Volume Six, say what you will; but Maria vs the crocodile woman, Neo vs Cinder and Yang and Blake vs Adam are some damm good fights.

Next chapter might take me a while to work on as there will be a new character and it will focus more on them and a battle between their villian.

Take your guesses

Weiss

Sun

Blake

Or Shopkeeper...


	6. Wrapping it up

Chapter Six: Wrapping it up

As Yang leapt up into the air she scanned the skyline for any sight of her little sister to see if she was flying around at Mach speed. She managed to catch the apparent end of the fight Ruby was having with some kind of large metal robot thing, Yang bore witness to her precious sister blasting the metal robot with an unbelievable amount of power from her chest and then slam into the robot, unfortunately Yang was too far away to see how Ruby had taken the other thing to the ground, but if she had to guess it would probably be a drop kick. Yang then landed on the ground and jumped towards where the two of them had impacted the ground, which was quite a ways from the mansion.

As she was a lot closer now, she spotted Ruby looking around at her surroundings and then at the downed body of the robot and bend over to pick it up, most likely to carry it back to the mansion and place it with the other attackers. While it was a smart thing to do as they would at least know where everyone was once the robot was brought back, Yang would change a couple of things about how she would do it.

"HEADS UP RUBY!" Shouted Yang as she landed right on the robot, not at full force like she had with Pyrrha a couple of times but still enough to let chrome dome know she meant business.

"YAAAAAANNNNNGGGGGG!" Whinned Ruby as her head piece opened up so that Yang could see her sisters smiling face. "I was trying to carry him back."

"Opps?" offered Yang with a shrug of her shoulders and an innocent smile on her face realising her blunder. "Wait him? Isn't it a robot?"

"No it's the guy with blue hair."

"Ohhh the one that really should have thought things through before they walked out the door."

"Yep."

"Cool, so I'm going to rip some of his amour off so that he can't use it against us and try to escape."

"Yang, look at me and then look at yourself- YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN- do you really think he could beat us both?"

Yang's sarcastic and jokey response fell flat on her tongue, damm Ruby and her ability to sense her jokes coming, does nobody around here appreciate comedy?

"No but it couldn't hurt." Yang suggested as she began reaching for one of the large robot arms.

"I think it might hurt him." Ruby muttered.

"Details." Was all the blonde had to say in reply to that, and then she began to start pulling off the man's plates and amour pieces very easily as thought they were made of paper, which for Yang was most likely the case. In fact it was always difficult for her ever since the accident, she felt like she was living in a whole world of paper and as ironic as it sounded, it took all of her strength to stop her from breaking everything around her.

"I wonder how Ren is doing?" pondered Ruby as her sister ripped the man's amour off him.

'FUC-' "I thought you would be faster than that, special agent Ren." Taunted Dove as a knife embedded itself into Ren's shoulder. It wasn't the first time that Ren had been stabbed; hell he had had so much worse things happen to him: shot, blown up, burned, drowned, electrocuted, broken bones, hair ripped out, nails ripped out, internal bleeding, hit by a car, thrown about by his teammates with super strength and also had to endure a nine hour lecture about proper work ethic from Deputy Director Agent Goodwitch. Needless to say Ren could handle a knife wound, but that didn't mean it was painless as it still stung like a bit-

"And I thought I had the reputation of being the silent one." Quipped Dove

Ren pulled the knife out and bounced it off the ceiling towards Dove and it landed close to his foot, only close as he had to take a step back to avoid losing his toes, however this momentary step put him off balance enough for Ren to vault over his cover and grab whatever was on the counter to use as close combat weapons to try and end the fight as quickly as possible.

Looking back on all of his worst moments he might have to add hitting someone around the face as hard as he could with a leek, while it might not be as embarrassing as getting hit with the food, it was still strange for him to even use such a weapon in that way. Still it served its purpose, Ren struck Dove around the face with the leek in his right hand, bringing it across his own body in a diagonal motion so that his hand then ended up by his left hip. Now that his right hand was chambered and ready to be released, Ren stuck simultaneously and brought his left arm down in an overhead chop with the vegetable, while his right hand swung back out from his hip and used the power of his turn from that strike and sliced Dove across the throat, now obviously it was just a leek so there was no damage other than to his pride.

After Ren finished the simultaneous strike he noticed that his grip on the veg and the force in which he struck Dove had destroyed the leeks, which seemed appropriate as they were only food and not exactly hardened weapons made for extreme combat. Throwing the green mush to the side Ren then delivered a right front kick and right back fist to Dove's already broken nose, but now it was damaged beyond repair. His last strike was a strong left palm strike to Dove's exposed chest, which created a very satisfying thud and a slight crunch sound that greatly pleased Ren's ears and sent Dove sprawling over one of the kitchen counters around the room, as he crashed into the floor he then threw a plate at Ren which curved around like a Frisbee and missed Ren completely, he didn't even need to move out of the way.

Ren was confident in the fact that Dove couldn't turn projectiles into a boomerang like that guy in the comics he read a long time ago, however if he had the powers of the protagonist in that comic the fight would be over in a flash. So instead Ren just stood there whilst Dove glanced from Ren back to his hands and then started shaking hard and growled out in anger.

"I…MISSED! I never miss." He panted out as best as he could, and then he looked utterly feral and was about to dive at Ren and try to end the fight, but that obviously would not go in his favour as he had now lost control of himself and thus would lose the fight, and while he was clearly motivated, he would not be controlled and would most likely fail.

Nora hit him on the head with a water melon and knocked him out.

"Thank you."

"OH MY DAD YOU WERE SO COOL RENNY, YOU WERE LIKE POW WHAM BASH AND HE WAS LIKE NOOOOOO VEGATABLES AND YOU THEN MADE HIM MISS AND STOOD THERE LOOKING SO HANDSOME AND STRONG, NOT THAT I THINK YOU ARE HANDSOME BUT YOU ARE AND I DO THINK THAT BUT YOU'RE MORTAL AND I AM A GODDESS AND IT WOULD BE WEIRD WOULDN'T IT YEAH MAYBE BUT HEY WE CO-"

"Nora."

"Yes Ren."

"How do you know what vegetables are but not pizza?"

Nora got a far off look in her eyes and then spoke with a greater wisdom than Ren would possibly see in all the years of his life.

"I have been to many Realms and many Places and three things are common; Love, Death and Vegetables. Mum made sure."

Ren considered this for a moment and then nodded, because who was he to argue with a goddess?

"Wait, weren't you fighting with Jaune and Yang?"

"ohh yeah it was so cool, Jaune is really smart and Yang was so strong, she went to go and find Ruby while Jaune stayed to fight Pyrrha."

Ren was not very happy to hear that and couldn't imagine that Jaune was enjoying himself right now. Pyrrha was a world renowned fighter, as the kingdom of Mistral had kept the gladiator matches alive for years ever since the war had been over, and Pyrrha had managed to win four times in a row which was a new record in history before she stopped and joined the air force, where she made an even bigger name for herself and then the rest was all classified information that Ren had managed to find out through some extensive digging. Needless to say she was a tough opponent before she got her abilities and now only a select few could possibly rival her and beat her, Ren was certain that Jaune despite being a man of legend might have a very slim chance against her.

Right now Pyrrha had made a promise to herself in silence as she walked behind Jaune Arc; for as long as she lived she would never do anything to harm this man. For whatever reason she couldn't think of right now he had saved her, when she didn't even know that she needed saving. Yes she had been excited when she won her first gladiator match back home in Mistral, and her second, and her third and then her fourth. But with that fame and the riches came a crippling loneliness, everyone assumed she was too good for them, nobody saw Pyrrha Nikos the kind woman, they saw Pyrrha Nikos, the undefeated warrior in the arena and pride of Sanctum air force. Right from the start she knew which one she would rather be known as, but that didn't mean she regretted her victories in the slightest, it was her choice to fight the first time; the others were all chosen for her by sponsors and brands that wanted her to try out different weapons and outfits for them. Right now however, she knew who she really felt like and it was her choice.

Together the two walked back through the forest and Jaune lead the way, with his back to Pyrrha and his shield slung over his shoulders. This gave her another chance to study the man in-front of her in a more detailed way after she had seen him and felt him while they were fighting. It was clear from the start that he was a very strong individual and the punches he gave showed that, they didn't hurt her, but she could feel them and the force would have taken down anybody else if they were in her position. He also held a commanding position amongst his teammates despite having only been out of the ice for three days now, he might not be the leader but if the so called 'Hunter's' went on more missions, he would defiantly be the one who came up with the plans.

'Attractive too' she thought absent minded, but then realised how strange it was to think that about a eighty or ninety year old man.

Moving on from that distracting thought and forcing her eyes upwards instead of looking at the delightful view below, she studied his shield and then the back of his head. He hadn't turned around to look at her once since he had helped her up with a smile and then said they should head back to the others. Was he testing her to see if she would attack him while his back was turned? To see if she would run away; leave him and the others? No, that didn't fit the stories that she had read about Captain Vale, the man was someone who spent his days on the battle field inspiring men and women to fight with everything they had and never give up, and it was more likely that he just believed in her to not try to hurt him or anybody else.

He believed in her to be Pyrrha Nikos, and for once it wasn't because of her fighting, it was because of her not fighting.

Jaune was very glad that Pyrrha had accepted his offer to stop the fight between them, he knew in his heart that she was a good person, he could usually tell immediately which people had an easier time helping out people and who needed help being placed in the right direction. There were no bad people in his book; just misguided and while he might have referred to Dr Watts and Mercury Black as being bad people, he knew that deep down they had the capacity for good, but a series of tragedy's and trauma throughout their life had turned them on the wrong path. He could only hope that he could guide everyone that he met along the good path, the right path, and now he saw that he had been given a second chance to do right in this world, and that started with Pyrrha.

He knew that she might have a little bit more to go in her journey as she would have to permanently leave General Ironwood and his army and then decide what it was that she wanted to do for herself. Maybe she never got the choice in her life time to make her own decisions and just followed along because she thought that it was the right thing to do. Either way Jaune was going to help her along and she might stumble and lose her way, but that doesn't mean that she would be lost forever, there was always a chance for people to see the light and come through for the world, and while the people might not always say thank you, Jaune would always do his best to let her know that he was appreciative of the effort she was putting in.

The walk back through he forest was nice and Jaune almost forgot about his companion who was being so quiet that when Jaune focused back in on her, he could hear her thinking over everything and while that was a good thing, he knew the hard way that overthinking often lead to anxiety and panic, and the last thing he needed was for a good woman to start panicking and do the wrong thing like hurt someone. The perfect opportunity came up when they found a fallen tree in their way, Jaune stepped over it and the offered his hand out to Pyrrha, maybe the small act of kindness would help clear her head, it was a flitting thought but right now Jaune only had the chance to help in little ways, besides she was wearing heels.

'Well at least women being fashionable hadn't changed throughout the years.' He thought as the heels did suit her quite well, they brought her just below Jaune's height of 6"1. Although she probably wouldn't be 6 foot without her heels on a small part of his mind reasoned.

"Oh." Pyrrha breathed out as she gazed at the hand held out in front of her to help her over the fallen tree, most likely from either her doing or Yang's doing. It was such a small gesture and also unneeded as she could fly over the tree or step over it on her own or even walk around if needed. It was such a simple gesture that she had seen a lot of couples partake in and nobody had ever offered her something so simple as the few dates she had been on tried there hardest to impress her with what they could do and never thought about how they could help her or make her time enjoyably.

Pyrrha grabbed Jaune's hand extremely quickly after she let out the near silent breath she probably thought he might not notice. Grasping it firmly she allowed him to help her over the tree, blushing lightly from the contact with a very attractive and kind hearted man. His hand was warm to the touch and was also rough and had several calluses indicating that he worked with his hands a lot, most likely fighting as the three days he had been out of the ice were probably not enough for him to start doing weight lifting, which was a usual cause of calluses for people willing to stay in tip top shape.

"T-thank you Captain." He shot her an endearing smile, something that was truly honest and comforting to her.

"Never a problem." He responded in his lovely voice, Pyrrha reckoned he would be a fantastic singer if you gave him a guitar or if you asked him to sing really quickly. They then continued the rest of the walk back in silence and Pyrrha already missed the warmth of his hand, as he had retracted it once she had stepped over the tree.

As they reached the clearing where they could clearly see the bullhead that Pyrrha, General Ironwood and the other uninvited guests had arrived in, they also say Yang and Ruby standing over two bodies on the ground, one of them was Russel laying sprawled on his back, and for the first time since Pyrrha had known him, he wasn't wearing the creepy smile he usually wore. The other was clearly Sky in his advanced amour, but judging from all of the damage to it and that Ruby Rose didn't have a single scratch on her amour, Pyrrha could guess that his amour was nowhere near as advanced as hers. The only people missing from the group that Pyrrha came with were General Ironwood, Cardin and… Dove.

Just as the two of them walked up to Yang and Ruby, Pyrrha noticed how tense Yang was and that Ruby's amour seemed to glow brighter the closer that she got to them, she could have sworn that they were going to actually attack her if Jaune had not stepped in-front of her and smiled at the two ladies and calmed them down before another fight broke out.

"It's okay, we talked it out." Explained Jaune

"Are you sure?" Asked Yang, looking straight at Pyrrha eyes glaring into hers not giving an inch, and for the second time in her life Pyrrha looked away from a person's eyes as she began to speak.

"I'm sorry." She muttered softly, and then she swallowed and looked back up into Jaune's eyes, which were full of understanding, and offered a small supportive smile and nod. That was enough for her to realise that she was currently doing the right thing and needed to continue with her apology.

"I'm so sorry." She said, this time speaking louder and less choked up than before, and while the message was meant for Yang as she was the one who Pyrrha had probably hurt the most, she directed it all at Jaune; her eyes never leaving him for a single second.

Jaune placed a hand on her shoulder and suddenly she felt leagues better about herself, her head felt clearer, she felt rejuvenated and had more energy. It was like his very presence was calming and inspiring, she knew before how he was able to command army's into wars and win battles, but now she understood why people followed him; his very being amplified everything and everyone around him to try harder and do their very best.

"I forgive you." Jaune says back to her with complete and utter sincerity, Jaune might not know much or understand anything about this new world, but he still believes in people and 'the more that the things around them change, the more they also seem to stay the same' was how an old saying he knew went by.

Ruby relaxed slightly as she would take Jaune's word for now, but the moment Pyrrha showed even the slightest sign of deceit and deception then Ruby would strike fast to stop her from making off with her sister. Yang on the other hand stood as close to Ruby as possible and continued to glare hard at Pyrrha which was making her slightly nervous and agitated, but Jaune then positioned himself closer to Yang and whispered something to her that Pyrrha couldn't quite hear, and when she then realised that she was actively trying to eaves drop on Jaune and Yang she became a tad more embarrassed and tuned them out completely as she knew how rude it was to listen in on others conversations.

Just as the two blonde members of the team converse, Nora and Ren come out of the mansion, with Nora carrying Dove in one hand. Well carrying might be a loose term, what Pyrrha actually saw was Nora dragging Dove across the ground by his leg; the man in question was out cold and covered in dust, blood and what looked to be watermelon and leeks? How on Remnant had that managed to happen? This just left Cardin and General Ironwood unaccounted for, and then the party was complete.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH." Screamed a voice from above, as a solid metal object fell towards the ground at an astonishing speed, faster than any military plane that Pyrrha had ever flown before in her life. Judging from the screaming and the metal, the falling body must have been Cardin as he was the only one that Pyrrha knew who could transform his body into different substances.

"Oh yeah, I forgot he was up there." Said Nora dismissively as Cardin plummeted to the ground, but then stopped on a lien just before he smacked into the ground, as though being held inplace.

"So you gonna change back or what?" asked Nora, except that Pyrrha knew it wasn't a question, she was simply giving Cardin the best option to have and telling him what she wanted to happen. For once in her life, Pyrrha hoped that Cardin would be okay as she could see the glint in Nora's eye's and felt fear ripple through her. She was so glad that she didn't try to fight her and Yang together, along with Jaune; there was no way in this world that she could possibly have won that battle, she silently wondered who could ever keep Nora in line or hold her back to stop her from going too far.

"Nora, let the man go." Ren said calmly as he checked on Dove's pulse to make sure that Nora hadn't killed him as she dragged him along.

"Okay." And with that she dropped Cardin who immediately changed back to his human flesh and scrambled away from Nora as fast as he could and looked away from the dead stare of Ren, Nora might have been the scariest person in the area, but Ren was the person that the scariest person listened to and that sent a lot of shivers down his spine.

"We got more incoming." Ruby's voice came out to her fellow teammates, as they witnessed a second Bullhead fly slowly towards them; this one had the BEACON insignia on it and had already made contact with Penny before it entered the airspace around the mansion and after a quick scan it was revealed that there were only two heat signatures on-board.

As the Bullhead landed next to the Atlas one, a ramp descended from the back and the two people walked down, a slight tap of a cane and a small sip of coffee could be heard as the leader made his way down the ramp, completely relaxed. The other person however was very tense and was muttering to herself as she clenched her fists as hard as she could.

"ONE DAY. Just one day without having to deal with these people, is that so much to ask? I need a holiday." Glynda muttered to herself as she grit her teeth, fortunately nobody decided to call her out on her statement, less they feel her wrath.

"Hello Ozpin, how are you today?" Ruby asked cheerfully with an awkward wave at Glynda after greeting the director.

"I am well Miss Rose, I must say, you are having an eventful few days are you not? I do wonder what is in your future; I imagine it will be something amazing or magical, as seems to be this group's specialty." Ozpin responded as he looked over The Hunters, and then his eye's settled on Pyrrha and he moved forward to shake her hand.

"Miss Nikos." Ozpin regarded her for a moment and his eyes saw right through her for a second and Pyrrha felt worried that he knew all of her secrets. "Apologies, Major Nikos. General Ironwood always does keep things close to the chest." And with that strange statement he walked right past her and over to the fallen bodies of her squad, taking an extra hard look at Dove.

It was at this moment that General Ironwood then came stumbling out of the front doors of the mansion and Pyrrha had to supress both a gasp of shock and then a slight giggle as she took in his appearance. Usually the General was the sharpest dressed man in Atlas, his white military suit was pressed and flawless, his hair immaculate and regulation length, his trousers clean and practical and his boots would always be the infuriating colour of white no matter where he went.

Right now however he was… well less than impressive. Pyrrha didn't really want to go in to detail about his attire, however his face was turning every shade of red, unfortunately that also included her own hair colour, under the sun from either anger or embarrassment.

"Ozpin, I DEMAND THAT YOU HAVE MISS ROSE AND HER ASSOCIATES ARESTED RIGHT THIS INSTANT! NIKOS TAKE THEM DOWN NOW!" General Ironwood at everyone present, this caused Yang to tense up and Nora to heft her hammer. However Pyrrha only really looked at Jaune, sure she noticed the others any warrior worth their salt would still be aware of their surroundings, but she was mostly focused on the Captain and when she spoke it was to him.

"I'm sorry General, you are out matched, it is time to go." Pyrrha stated, making sure to purposely say the words that way so that she could convey a message to Jaune that it was 'them' and not 'us' as it used to be. Jaune allowed himself a small smile in Pyrrha's direction before she boarded the Bullhead that she arrived in, Yang and Nora decided to be nice and throw the bodies of Sky, Dove and Russel up the ramp and Cardin ran full sprint away from the crazy ginger lady, muttering about stupid hammers and … pigeons? Either way Pyrrha was slightly glad to be leaving the mansion, it was like she was leaving that part of her behind and moving on to the next chapter of her life, the next step was simple; leave the Atlas military, preferably on good terms but she would be leaving.

As Ozpin watched the Bullhead fly away from the mansion he took a look around the garden and the roof of the house and noticed the damage done to it; scorch marks, craters, fallen trees, torn pieces of metal, rubble all over the floor and he suspected the inside of the house to be no different from the outside, although minus the fallen trees.

"Good day?" he asked rhetorically and with a sly smile on his face while Glynda clenched her teeth in the background, frustrated that he was entertaining these children in their destruction. If they behaved this recklessly with their own property, then how would they fair others property or even BEACON's?

"YES! Ren kicked all kinds of butt against a hundred ninjas, I got to hold a guy up so high I think a bird pooped on him, Jaune and Yang beat up the pretty red haired girl and the Mohawk dude, Ruby blasted that guy with the power of the sun and then we defeated a thousand soldiers all at once, and I was like: NORA SMASH, wait Yang you should say that not me. My bad." Nora then fell silent as she was thinking of awesome things they could say before they battled, meanwhile the rest of the team just exchanged looks and Ruby shrugged at Jaune who turned back to Ozpin.

"It was un-eventful sir." Jaune responded, to which Yang snorted in laughter, Ruby chuckled, Ren gave a small smirk and Nora laughed a full belly laugh. Ozpin smiled very slightly behind his coffee cup and took a small sip. 'This is shaping up to be a very interesting year.' He thought to himself.

"Very well then, I guess that myself and Agent Goodwitch are no longer required, we wish you a good day, Hunters." They then turned to leave, one far more egger than the other, but before they boarded the Bullhead Ozpin turned back to the team and spoke out to them. "The offer to join BEACON still stands, in-case you are interested."

"Actually we would like to offer you something." Ruby said. "If you need us, just call. We are here to help, but we do it on our terms; no secrets."

Ozpin smiled again, but it was a pleasant surprised smile, these Hunters were earning his respect far faster than any other group out there and they kept surprising him, he hoped that in time they would change the world. His expression then grew serious, 'after all, it will need to change for what is coming' he thought sombrely.

* * *

Mercury was furious.

Mercury was livid.

Mercury was rage incarnate.

Mercury had also killed about twenty seven people in one sitting; however this didn't really appease his anger. Oh how he wished his father was still alive, killing him again would make him satisfied. Right now he would have to settle for killing these drug dealers and prostitution racketeers; 'I mean, I know I'm a mass murder, but have a little respect for women won't you.' He thought as he brought his boot down on the ring leader's skull, shattering it completely and creating a loud squishy crack that filled the office.

After his failed attempt to kill Arc for the second time, Mercury was feeling a deeper rage that he had ever felt before, sure his father had made him mad at time- actually all the time, but with Arc it was different. He had to try and be righteous and good while they were fighting and only try to send him to prison, at least when he fought his father would fight him he would spend his time trying to beat him black and blue until he could no longer stand on his own legs. But Arc constantly held himself back, out of some misplaced self-righteousness, Mercury would not give him the same opportunities for survival and he could not understand why Arc would ever give him the option. It just didn't make sense in any way to the master assassin.

As he made his way back out of the office he passed a number of dead men and women that had tried to stop his rampage. Now the dead women might seem a little hypocritical to the statement he mentioned earlier about respecting women, but if someone was trying to kill him they would die before they even tried to. He would never however force himself on a woman or pick up a prostitute, or even do drugs; other than the ones that Dr Merlot gave him to keep his heart going once every ten years to stop the poison from killing him. You see when Arc launched Mercury into the electrical current, several vials of experimental Grimm and dust energy also went into his body causing untold amounts of pain, the good doctor managed to find a way to ensure that Mercury would survive the new substances in his body; however he couldn't remove the pain…

The agony that followed him

Every

Waking

Moment

Right now he was headed back to talk to Dr Merlot, if he was going to kill Arc and end this rivalry of theirs then he needed others to fight off his new friends so that he would have a chance at the Captain. It was now clear Arc would always be with others, the cat woman was evidence of that, and if her peed and suit were anything to go by she was clearly an enhanced individual much like him and Arc. While she was fast and strong, as well as extremely agile and skilled in hand-to-hand combat, it was also clear her suit was impervious to damage as his boots impacted things very hard, and she barely let out a cry of pain when he managed to land a hit on her, the suit seemed to absorb the damage, he was just lucky that was all it did. It was also clear that some of Arc's new friend might not share his view of no killing as she was aiming for the vital areas that he would really miss if she got to them. Now about those 'friends' the good doctor promised him.

"Ahh Master Black, back at last. And how went the hunt for the Captain?" asked Dr Merlot sarcastically as he had already heard the news before Mercury arrived about an explosion at the graveyard, but with no casualties.

"Now is not a time to test me." Growled out Mercury, with balled up fists as he glared daggers through Dr Merlot's mechanical eye. Due to the passage of time affecting Dr Merlot like it did with most normal men, he was forced to adapt and fill his body with multiple metal components and cybernetic limps and organs, truly he was more a machine than a man.

"Very well; why have you returned?"

"I wish to speak to your… employer, if I wish to kill Arc, I will need 'friends'." Mercury spat, with venom.

Dr Merlot considered this for a moment and then chuckled slightly.

"I imagined you would say that, he is currently asking one of those so called 'friends' to help you out. Just try not to be green with envy over his choice."

* * *

Adam Taurus leaned back on his throne, considering the proposition from the person before him. It was an interesting one, of that he was certain, and it would provide him with the means to expand his boarders and make a real difference in Faunus history and in the worlds history. However, this man didn't really consider the immediate impact this would have against his country and the people in it, sure he saw the big picture and the reward at the end, but Adam suspected that the man also didn't care how many Faunus lost their lives for his crusade. If this war was going to mean something then Adam would only act when he was assured of his victory, and right now he knew that the forces of the Atlas military, BEACON and Mistral army would overwhelm his own forces. He did however know of an alternative…

"I'm willing to … give you someone who would be willing to help. But I need you to do something for me first of all." Adam said cryptically, the man before him was clearly experienced, you could see it in his eye; he knew when he was being tricked, it was after all his profession.

The man tilted his head in expectance, waiting for the offer before he made any sort of deal with the king. _'Give them the illusion of control, make them feel powerful and important. Then take it away in one fell swoop.'_ He remembered the day an old friend had offered him that particular advice, right before he died.

"There is a Faunus." Adam began carefully, struggling to not let the rage appear on his face as he thought of the one he spoke of, the one who would risk himself to help and protect humans. "He resides in Vaccuo … he is a mockery of everything we stand for here in Fort Castle … kill him and I will consider your request."

The man looked as though he was pondering this for a moment, when in reality he was actually searching his pockets for another cigar to have. He mocking bowed to the so called king and then turned to leave, making sure to twirl and tap his cane against the ground loudly to irritate the Faunus with heightened hearing. He didn't care for these animals after all, they were nothing to him. There was only one person on this planet that had any sort of significance to him right at this moment in time and he would be dammed if he didn't try to make their life a living hell, as they had made his.

So the Faunus king wanted one of his own kind dead, big surprise! The people here were always killing each other for some reason; more likely than not just for something to do. Obviously killing this animal was beneath him in all aspects, but he knew the perfect person for the job.

There was a man on this planet that he had heard of; a man so deranged that even other maniacs called him crazy. So blood thirsty, that war chiefs and mercenary's told him to calm down. Far more brutal than was deemed necessary. However he was only a man, not even a Faunus, and it stood to reason that Adam would most likely wan the rebellious one to be taken down by a Faunus.

And he knew that to catch an animal, you had to make an animal. Now what was the best thing at hunting Monkeys?

A Vulture? No they prayed on the weak and on the dead, and the Faunus that Adam wished taken care of was neither. A Rhino? No to destructive, and it wouldn't really do much good to have someone blindly charge at someone else who showed such agility and dexterity. A Scorpion? Now that was promising, strong, fast and agile, add in poison and it was a deadly predator, but no it wouldn't work. This particular Faunus had shown a surprising level of intelligence against the common types of Faunus, so he knew what he would have to make; a monster.

He wondered how the world would feel about…

Goblins?

* * *

Pyrrha left the meeting feeling better than she thought she would; it was a lot of General Ironwood screaming at her about duty and oaths, but she had taken no oaths and her duty was now to protection of the people and not to subjecting innocent women to numerous science tests. When General Ironwood had almost threatened her to stay, she calmly replied with what army. He didn't seem to like that response, however Director Ozpin managed to change his mind as he had sent an e-mail halfway through the meeting, with a list of warehouses full of STRQ weapons and said that Miss Rose now had the location of one of them and if he didn't let Miss Nikos go then she would gain the location of the others.

Pyrrha felt a great weight lift off her shoulders as she walked down the hallway to her room, she would have to thank Director Ozpin profoundly when she next saw him as he was the reason she had left without a fight. Although it would probably be after she thanked Jaune massively for giving her the courage to leave.

' _I met Jaune Arc today'_ she thought to herself, if you had told her six years ago that she would meet one of the key figures of Remnant vast history, both normal and military she would have scoffed at the idea, it was ridiculous. But now; she was giddy at the thought of talking to him again, he was the one person in a very long time that had treated her with compassion and humility. She could honestly say she had never met a man like him before.

As she reached her door she noticed that it had been left ajar, powering up her fist she stepped into the room and scanned it, ready to defend herself at any cause, what she found however was Dove laying down on her bed flinging a knife lazily between his hands, when he heard her come in and aim her fist at him he just shrugged and turned his attention back to his knife.

Pyrrha gulped and lowered her hand, she then closed her door and took a deep breath, when she turned back he was already in-front of her and caressed her cheek, his face not betraying anything, not the hint of emotion.

Out of everyone she worked with, he unnerved her the most. All because he knew. He knew something that she had never told anybody on Remnant, and it terrified her. Could she beat him? Without breaking a sweat, other than Yang, Jaune's shield and Nora, Pyrrha doubted that there was something out there that could cause her harm, that wasn't to say that she couldn't be hurt in other ways.

"So I hear you are leaving."

Pyrrha managed a nod, and let out a shaky breath. _'Please stop'_ she begged in her head.

"Try not to forget your … friends" Dove said as he passed her and made for the door, but before leaving he turned to her one last time. "After all, I am sure your new friends would love to know why you are really here, P'yrr'a" he finished using her real name that caused her to let out a small gasp of fear.

Long after he left Pyrrha stood in the same spot, tears fell from her eyes and down her cheeks, it wasn't until the cleaner came around that she quickly packed away all of her things and she left the base. She then realised that she had nowhere to go, and due to the time difference, nobody would possibly still be awake at the mansion, and she wasn't sure if she would even be welcome there by everyone other than Jaune just yet, Yang especially might try to attack her the moment she showed up. So Pyrrha just decided to to the thing that she had done ever since the day that she was born.

Fly

Fly high.

* * *

Been a while I know, sorry. Work and life get in the way as they do.

Now I wonder who the mystery man is talking about, and who does Adam want dead?

I mean, I know but I'm hoping you guys guess it.

Little bit of a short one I know, but the next chapter is going to be a long one.

I promise.


	7. Amazing

Chapter seven: Amazing

Chapter seven: Threat or Menace; I say Monkey

As per the usual Vacuo was hot, painfully hot all the time, however the longer you lived there the less and less you noticed the heat; you just got used to it as the years went on. Much like how the people in Atlas got used to the cold, the people in Mistral to the altitude and the people in Vale to the natural disasters that seemed to happen every day now that there were more of these so called heroes around now.

There were more differences between the temperature of Vacuo and the other kingdoms of course; for example out of all of the kingdoms it had without a shred of doubt the most delicious food, they had been the ones to invent pizza after all. They provided a vast selection of different foods and the clothes were both functional and stylish; they made you look a lot like one of those space warriors in that old trilogy of films. The buildings on the outer skirts of the kingdom were small when you compared them to that of Vale and Atlas, but they were many around, as Vacuo was blessed with a large amount of level ground, it was just a shame that most of it was sand, and everyone knew the story of what happened to the man who built their house on the sand. Towards the centre of the city they had a couple of skyscrapers, not many as they were still on the short side next to the other kingdoms, but you still had to crane your neck to look at the top of the buildings from the ground. They did have several rather beautiful sections of the kingdom that had been untouched by humans and Faunus, dubbed Oasis gardens and were fiercely protected by activists and the Vacuo representatives on the council.

There was also a fair bit of wildlife and animals dotted around the city, several of the buildings had trees growing either near them or even in them. One particular restaurant had almost a whole jungle inside of it, a little bit freaky if you ask me but hey; strange flaunt, but alas. The animals roamed the streets in small numbers, often being led by a Shepard or a group of merchant traders, years ago people would hire protection when transporting their animals across the block, but now they walked freely and happily across the city as one of the very first crimes that Monkey-King had managed to thwart was animal theft; he also stopped an illegal trafficking ring as well without even knowing.

Monkey-King by the way was the local 'Hero' of Vacuo. He swings in once a day and zip zap bong, he saves the day. Many viewed him as a saviour; many viewed him as a menace. Ethical debate aside, you couldn't go ten minutes in the kingdom without hearing his name being mentioned at least once.

Despite all of his so called good intentions, personally jack still had quite a big problem with the so called heroes, as they claimed to be. They made it very hard for the little guys to actually get anything done or to progress in the world they lived in, because everyone usually compared you to them when you tried to do something good; oh Captain Vale could have done that so much better, yeah well Captain Vale can go and suck my d-

"J we're ready, you good?" asked Alan or A as he was going to be known for the next twenty minutes, shaking his head of the angry thoughts of the self-proclaimed heroes, J sobered up and nodded to A, signalling he was ready.

A, J, P and F burst through the bank doors, all of them wearing ski masks and wielding guns of various designs and calibres at the crowd of people in the bank, F knocked out the security guard as quickly as he could and then the people started to panic, but not before A managed to shoot a single bullet in the air and order everyone on to the ground.

The adrenaline was running through J's body at this point and he could barely stop himself from shaking as he held the gun, they were actually going to pull this off and then the money could finally be used to get his little girl to go to a good school, out of this shit hole of a kingdom, to a good place like Haven academy, where she could be anything. J almost didn't notice when P leapt over the bank tellers desk and ran to where the safe was kept, carrying his own drilling equipment. In fact all of the robbers were so preoccupied that they didn't notice that the manager had managed to set off the silent alarm right before he was pulled out of his office and thrown to the ground.

J was so caught up in controlling the crowd that when he felt the little gust of wind on the back of his neck he just assumed it was cold sweat from the sheer nervousness of the whole situation. That was when he heard the voice call out to him; it was a young voice that much he could work out, and it sounded confident, but not a cocky kind of confident but a _right_ kind of confident like he was so sure that what he was doing was the right thing for him to do.

"Yeah man I get it, the lines at the bank almost make me go banana's as well, I try to do it over the phone, so much easier."

J is not too proud to admit that the voice coming from behind him made him jump and scream out a little bit like a little girl, but when he turned around to aim his gun at the intruder, there was nobody there. F and A also raised their own guns in the direction of the voice, but upon finding nobody there they started to point their guns in every other direction other than the hostages they had gathered up.

"Shit, shit, shit, it's the Monkey guy!" cries F

"Stay calm man, we don't know that." Replies A.

F start to sweat even more and takes a couple of steps backwards away from the group and eventually disappears from the eye line of the other two people that are on crowd control, but he doesn't care about that, he has the wall to his back so nobody can sneak up on him and take him from behind, he is safe, he tells himself. Just then a golden tail taps him on the shoulder lightly and as he turns around to see who it is he is whisked up to the ceiling and then the lights got out.

A and J turn to look at each other as they briefly heard a slight thud of something impacting the ceiling, hard. But that would have been impossible as the ceiling was way too high for someone to be thrown against or to even hit. Just as A opens his mouth to call out to F to see if he is okay, a blast sends him flying back against a wall and trapping his knocked out body against it and holding him up by… vines? What the heck? Vines had just sprouted all around his body and were now holding him upright and in place against the concrete wall like it was nothing. This was insane, there was no way that was a random thing, it was defiantly the Monkey-King. Looking back to where the blast of vines must have come from J failed to see a blur pass by him and head to where P is still drilling, currently oblivious to all of the things going on around him.

It's when the drilling stops and the unconscious body of P is thrown into the centre of the room and sliding across the floor that J really starts to lose it, he just wants to get out of here and forget about what is happening right now, robbing a bank is not worth this trouble if he gets this kind of treatment form some mystery guy. A quick glance at the hostages suggests that they are even more afraid than he actually is; which is quite a feat to achieve in this current frame. While he is debating to himself if he should grab one of the hostages and take them prisoner so he could have some insurance, his gun is pulled out of his hand with extreme ease by another vine from behind him.

J turned around to face the person that had disarmed him and left him completely defenceless, what he saw was a tall and muscular man, he wasn't overly built like some of the people he saw in the gym, this man was built like a gymnast or a runner, as for his height he was probably only six foot, but the light and fear coming from J made him seem even taller. Now on to his appearance; he wore a bright yellow and blue suit, not a business suit mind you, but a full body suit that covered him head to toe and showed of the man's impressive body. The yellow was running down the outside of his arms and the outside of his legs, as well as down the centre of his chest and covering his head, meanwhile the blue was on his under arms and sides as well as covering the rest of his legs. On the centre of his chest was a large red monkey, and the red also appeared on his knuckles and feet, as well as his eyes. The suit that he was wearing was truly advanced far beyond that of business suits.

"Spider-Guy!"

BLAM-One punch knocked the masked robber out cold and the costumed man brought his fist back down to his side and sighed loudly, why could nobody remember his name.

"It's Monkey-King, you got the hyphen, but I'm a Monkey, see the symbol… oh and the tail." Monkey-King said as he waved his tail around absent minded like.

The Monkey-King then turned to the hostages and smiled…he then remembered that he was wearing a mask so he instead waved in what he believed to be a friendly greeting and spoke to those that were still staring at him in disbelief.

"So the bad guys are down, you are free to go, uh the police are outside so just be prepared to give your statement and if you need any medical treatment please seek it. Uh, yeah that's it… have a good day guys." The Monkey-King waved at the group and then left through the front doors and then leapt towards the wall as the police officers stood shocked at him and some even levelled their guns at him before he disappeared from their line of sight and swung away from the bank on one of his vines to another building.

The police chief just sighed, her superiors had been pushing her to try and capture the Monkey-King for almost seven years now, but as far as she was concerned he was one of the good guys, thanks to him Vacuo had almost gotten its act together and joined the other kingdoms in a lawful environment. Before Vacuo had been teaming with scum and villainy and any police officer was most likely looking for retirement or corrupt or even both. She had joined the department when he had first started out all those years ago and he managed to start something quite simply amazing.

He managed to get the criminals to start running scared; quite a lot of the organised crime families had been apprehended because of his efforts and the presence he had on the kingdom, several of the corrupt officers had been put behind bars or had simply turned straight and tried to right their wrongs. She knew exactly who they were as Monkey-king had brought most of their misdeeds to her attention, but she left them alone at his request because they were trying to do some good now. So in conclusion; she respected him and the message that he was sending to the people of Vacuo, he filled a lot of the kids with hope and most of the new officers that had come from the academy had said they had been saved by him at some point or had known someone that was still around because of him, and while he might not ask for a thank you or any recognition of any sort, she knew that there was no shortage of people that would love to thank him properly.

Some of the more political in the kingdom were calling for his head though as they didn't like how he was shaking up the foundations of the crime families, mostly because they went back to the very roots of the kingdom and the families had hands in multiple businesses and trades inside and out of Vacuo. There was even rumour of a vote to see if he could be removed from the city, but Monkey-King very quickly proved that he was still going to do his job no matter who stood in his way when he brought down the previous police commissioner on charges of murder.

Monkey-King squatted on the opposite roof top of the bank and watched the people slowly trickle out of the building and a few went over to an ambulance while others gave their statement, the police then went in and came back out walking the four masked robbers and placed them in their cars before driving them off to their stations to exact their justice. Monkey-king didn't know why he stayed around for this part as he trusted the police to do their jobs, but after a while it had become his routine, he would stick around (pun intended) and watch the brave men, women and Faunus complete their jobs and look after the people. Monkey-King smiles beneath his mask, and mutters a good job directed at the police chief and her fellow officers and then swings away through downtown Vacuo; his very own jungle.

While the infamous vigilante is swinging around his city he hears a radio broadcast from the police about a runaway truck and several other cars following it in a convoy, suspects are members of the white fang and appear to have stolen several vials of dust belonging to the Schnee Dust Company. Now personally Monkey-King didn't really like the Company that much as most of the science experiments they performed were morally and ethically questionable to say the least, and that was the main reason that he left the science division and turned the remainder of his attention to the work of medicine and prosthetics, he did have a friend in the company, Winter, who ran several science labs around the city devoted to making it a cleaner and healthier city so Monkey-King spent most of his spare time working at them and sending the data he collected to the SDC. He would like to do more, however his other job (not the hero gig) meant that he was needed at odd hours.

Tracking down the run away vehicle, Monkey-King landed on one of the back cars and leaned down so that he could see in the passenger window.

"Hey, did you not see the speed limit sign?" Understandably the white fang grunt fired his gun at him, and naturally he missed. So Monkey-King pulled him out of his seat, tied him up in a vine and attached him to a street light. He then smashed through the car window and knocked the driver out of the driver's seat, where he then landed right on top of a parked police car. As there was no driver, the car spun out of control and flipped over sideways, but before the car could start tumbling towards pedestrians on the pavement, Monkey-King slipped out of the car and managed to catch it, holding it in his hands and then lowered it back down on to its tires. With one car secured, the hero turned around, briefly stretched for a second and then jumped into the air, intent on gaining on the remaining other car before he got to the truck and stopped their nefarious scheme.

As he swings after the car, the front passenger leans out of his window and start to shoot several bullets at him, at this moment in time everything seems to slow down for our hero as he watches the bullets fly towards him as thought they were going through water. He leans his body to the side to avoid the first shot and subsequently the second one as well, he then performs the splits and shoots out two more vines from either hand that pull him upwards into a front somersault, avoiding the remaining bullets. The white fang grunt grunts, as he is unable to move fast enough to properly track his chaser and get a good shot off at him. This then results in the Monkey-King landing on the roof of the car and kicking the gun out of his hand with a low spinning sweep. Now unarmed; the white fang grunt has no idea what to do, fortunately he doesn't need to worry about that as the next thing he knows is that he is hanging from a street light wondering whether he will be let down soon.

Monkey-King flips down so that he is on the front of the car and then punches the windscreen in and knocks out the driver, he then shoots out two more vines to opposite buildings and slows the car down by forcing it to stop in place. Back-flipping off the front of the car, he turns quickly and runs after the truck, luckily it had not got too far from the second car and he was able to shoot a vine aimed at it and cling on to the back and pulls himself in towards it. Now that he is on the back of the truck he crawls around the side and crashes through the driver's window.

"When I say 'pullover' I don't mean your cardigan." He quips at the driver; she then does two things; shoots him an angry look and then shoots him. One of those hurts him a little more, because he knows that he is quite a funny guy, his aunt said so. In fact it was one of the last things that she said to him before she passed. Not away, just passed on.

Tying the drivers hands up to the ceiling of the truck, Monkey-King leapt back out of the window and then stood in-front of the truck and used an immense amount of strength to slow it down to a halt. The police cars that had been chasing the runaway convoy had finally caught up to the criminals, and Monkey-King was fortunate he recognised several of the police officers and felt confident that he wouldn't have to spend any time dodging bullets from them.

"Officer Davis, getting slow in your old age?" asked Monkey-King as he stood on the side of the truck and held out his hand to the police officer in charge of the situation.

"Haha, I'm pretty sure I am. But don't tell the wife, it will mean she'll be getting old as well." He responded while shaking the hand of the famed people's hero.

"Wouldn't dream of it. So… that three more for me, have I finally beaten the VKPD in stopping runaway vehicles?"

Officer Davis considered this for a moment before deciding on his answer. "Individually you probably have stopped more, but as a force? I think we still have you out numbered."

Monkey-King slumped dramatically and sighed loudly. "Curses, foiled by the police again. Well better head off, places to do and people to visit…wait that was back…wards, nO IT WASN'T."

"Sun." said Officer Davis quietly, cutting off the young man from embarrassing himself further. "The offer still stands; we wouldn't mind taking you in."

Sun flipped of the side of the truck and landed next to Officer Davis and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Jeff, you know I appreciate everything you have done for me since May passed, but I need to do this alone right now, I won't be alone forever I know, but right now I just need to find my own path, as Sun Wukong and Monkey-King."

"I know. I just wanted you to know that we're here for you."

"You didn't have to, I already know. Genius, remember?" and with that said the lone hero, jumped into the air, swung around a hanging street light and then flung himself off into the air, ready for the rest of the day and all that it would bring him. Officer Davis smiled sadly at the bravest man he knew as he swung away, there was no way on all of Remnant that he could ever forget that Sun Wukong was a genius, however he personally would add so much more to that list if he could, one day that man would be the greatest hero the world has even known. As Monkey-King was swinging through the city, he scanned the area and found that no crimes were popping up on his radar, so he thought that instead of wasting his precious vine material he would take a brief break from the swinging and perform a little maintenance on his equipment, you could always improve after all.

Landing on top of a taller building he safely perched himself on the edge of the roof and moved his mask up over his mouth, nose and eyes so that he could see a lot more clearly what he was doing. Looking at his vine shooters he was still impressed that he managed to upgrade so much that he got them down to the size of bracelets instead of the large clunky things which used to cover up his whole wrist and a good portion of his forearm as well. Right now as he tinkered with the devices, his handsome face was contorted in concentration and his tongue was stuck out in focus, his tail was also swishing from side to side.

That was when Sun noticed that his phone was beeping slightly, it was alerting him of something dangerous; white fang, bandits, building collapsing or an orphanage on fire?

"This is Peter Patrick Percy Port here." Nope, never mind.

"Here to talk to you about a costumed menace, a threat to the good people of Vacuo and a criminal with no regard for the safety of others; the Monkey-King." Yay, more me time.

"Just earlier this morning, there were reports of him being involved in a bank robbery." That's not entirely false, I was there.

"Now I know he was most likely working with the robbers, maybe he offered them money or blackmailed them into staging a robbery so that he could bolster his public image!" And there's the accusation, little bit slower than usual, you're slipping Port.

"We cannot be fooled people; he is a menace and a threat. Now the Iron Reaper, she is a true hero, taking down bandits and rouge mercenaries. MAYBE SHE SHOULD HEAD OVER HERE AND RID US OF THIS VILLAN!" Sticks and stones Port, but one day I will get you to say something nice about me.

After Ports lovely message of hope and inspiration, Sun decided to just sit on the edge of the building and enjoy the quiet of the city right now. You know all the times he passed through at his top swinging speed; Sun sometimes forgot how beautiful this place he called home actually was. The sun (the real one not him) always reflected off the windows and buildings and due to the buildings size, and the amount of palm trees that towered over some buildings, they created excellent spots of shade for people to relax in. The city just glowed and although Sun was certain that it wasn't like the other kingdoms (he had never been but he had seen the pictures) he was sure that this was the greatest in the whole of Remnant. Even if others didn't see it he sure did; it was where his mum and dad came from, where Uncle Ben and Aunt May had lived for years and it was where he had sworn to always protect.

Speaking of protection, right now the crime app that he had managed to create was reporting something very strange coming from a nearby roof top. Usually it classified the crimes as they would for the police, but right now all it said was 'location', which was extremely ambiguous, and could possibly be a trap set up by some government in an attempt to catch the hero and experiment on him.

"Welp, better not disappoint." Sun said as he dove off the side of the building and swung himself along to the source of the mysterious anomaly.

Once he landed on the rooftop he checked the surrounding areas to make sure that he wasn't about to be ambushed. BEACON had already tried that once before and it didn't work so well for them, the white fang had done so on numerous occasions and even the great and powerful Junior had given it a couple of shots at the vineslinger. His phone showed that he was almost on top of the signal, and when he looked up he saw it; one of his old backpacks from his days at Shade academy, he used to leave these around when he would go off to try his hand at superheroing, he went through so many bags, but luckily the lost and found at Shade always had multiple spare ones for him to use, and it didn't count as stealing since they were being used for something heroic, and nobody seemed to care if their bag went missing at Shade anyway.

"I wonder what's in it."

Sun knew that he left tracking devices in each of the bags so that he could collect them at a later date but he didn't have access to the police network back then and he was still getting used to the city and all of its buildings at that time, and he was a teenager, they were practically made to forget important things.

Inside the bag Sun found something very suppressing; a business card for a lawyer or more specifically a defence lawyer.

"Alistair Attorney, defence lawyer. I remember this guy; gave me the card and said if Monkey-King was ever in trouble and needed he- wait he was blind! How did he know who I was if he couldn't see me?"

As Sun thought over the conundrum he noticed that his phone and crime app were going off again, so he put the thought on hold for now and checked what was going down in the city.

"All available units; head to Junior's Club, reports of shots fired. Multiple Officers' down, repeat; multiple Officer's down."

Monkey-King was already swinging.

Hei Xiong also known as 'Junior' was a big time crime boss that basically ran the criminal underground of Vacuo, that empire had been slowly diminishing since the arrival of our hero, but Junior always managed to squirm his way out of trouble. Sometimes he did so forcefully, and this resulted in several of Sun's more noteworthy injuries; broken leg, multiple concussions, fractured ribs, several bouts of internal bleeding and a nice load of large scratches along his back from a sword that he collected and used on Sun when he confronted him at his art gallery.

Now though, it looked like the police had the evidence that they needed to shut him away for good and there was no way in hell that Monkey-King wasn't going to be a part of this battle, he had been waiting for this moment for nearly seven years, ever since he had heard of Junior through the criminal grapevine.

"Today is the day Junior." Monkey-King said as he swung towards the club building. Bellow him in the streets people stopped and pointed up at the hero swinging through the air, following the police cars that were speeding through the traffic lights; both forces headed to the same location.

The police cars screeched to a sudden halt as soon as possible and the officers got out and took up cover behind their cars and began to fire up at the building, meanwhile other officers were already firing up at the building before either of the two got there and so far they had made absolutely no progress into the building, currently it was a stalemate between the two sides. Luckily that was going to change now that the famous Monkey-King had arrived, and as he said; today was the day!

Landing on the side of a building opposite the carnage Sun takes a moment to survey the area, he learned a long time ago that he needed to mind his surroundings better in order to save more lives and possibly cause as little damage as he could. What he saw were several police vans had made a solid blockade where most of the officers had managed to fall back and rally to, however there were still several officers that were out on the front lines hiding behind their cars and taking pot-shots at the armed men leaning out of the windows.

Speaking of the men; they were all Juniors bodyguards and henchmen he had recruited or blackmailed on to his side and they all wore exactly the same costume as each other; pure black suits and red ties with sunglasses, they even wore the sunglasses indoors… that's how low they had sunk to. Sun knew that Junior didn't really like his men that much, but putting them in all black suits while in Vacuo was torture, he had seen several of his men faint and collapse over the years he had been fighting with them from sheer heat exhaustion, the penalty for changing your outfit to a light grey suit or a white one couldn't be that bad in the criminal underworld business... Could it?

A loud yell from down near a upturned police car snapped Monkey-King out of his mussing and surveillance of the area, it would seem that two police officers were pinned down behind the car, and what made it worse was that said car was leaking petrol, and the two officers were also injured, this meant that they would be nowhere near fast enough to escape the coming explosion.

"HEY IT'S THE FREAK SHOW! LET THE BOSS KNOW HE'S HERE!"

Element of surprise, it was nice knowing you but I think we need some time apart, it's not you it's me.

Dodging numerous hails of bullets directed at Monkey-King, he dived towards the car with the police officers hidden behind it, giving them a quick once over before he picked them up and slung them over the shoulder he could confirm that they both looked to have very minor injuries, but he would still ask them to check themselves out before they did anything else. After landing back at the solid blockade the cops had managed to post up, Sun placed the officers near several paramedics.

"Get out of here freak."

"Yeah we had that handled."

BOOM.

All three of them turn to look as their car erupts in flames from the explosion.

"You guys get yourselves looked at, I'm going in, and hopefully we can stop Junior before he manages to escape or weasel his way out of this one." Monkey-King explains to the officers, after eight years you kind of get used to their attitude.

"Don't tell us what to do; you have no authority over us."

"I just don't want anybody else to get hurt here sir, I can lead the charge and give you guys an opening to get through."

The opening was Sun chucking a guy through a window, this lead to several things happening at once. Almost everyone turned to look at the commotion of Sun throwing an armed goon through the window, several of the suits were clumped together so Monkey-King knocked them all down like bowling ball pins, chuckling as he did so.

There were three other things that caught Sun's eye were:

Her heels were way too high.

The DJ was still going and was wearing a teddy bear mask.

And the bar was the only place that didn't have any bullet holes, probably because of the drinks.

Oh and the police were having quite a bit of trouble with the gun fight, while there might have been more officers outside, it was clear that the fight had started in the club, but the majority of the force had been pushed outside.

"Hey guys, need a hand, or two, hell I can offer you some feet and a tail as well."

"GET OUT OF HERE, WE HAVE THIS!" Yelled a random cop

"Sure you do buddy." Muttered Sun as he shot a vine towards one of the suits, pulling him towards the man at break neck speed, luckily he pulled his strength back a lot and just knocked him out with a strong punch. The rest of his friends looked around at the cops hiding behind the pillars and then at the hero who had knocked out his fellow lawbreaker and decided that the colourful hero was the better target.

As the bullet shot towards him, Monkey-King did a one handed back hand spring out of the way, using his other hand to shoot a small net of vine fluid over the shooters eyes, temporary blinding him. The back hand spring brought Monkey-King closer to another suit that tried to pistol whip the back of his head, however he leapt over the top of his swipe and then drop kicked the back of his head propelling him forward into his blind friend and knocking them both to the ground. Monkey-King then shot an impact vine and trapped the two members to the floor, leaving them unable to get up.

Cartwheeling out of the way of two more bullets, our hero shoot a line out and pulled himself towards another assailant and punched him around the face, however this one stayed standing as Sun had lost the element of a surprise attack. A right roundhouse kick to the face seemed to solve some of the problem, and then as the suits face was turned to the side he followed through with a left spinning kick and knocked him out cold. His buddy that was stood next to him swung his baton at him trying to catch him off guard, but Monkey-King slide in-between his legs and upper-cutted him up in to the air and then jumped up after him to continue his attacks; a left cross, a right roundhouse and then a front flip double kick that flung the man across the room.

Another couple of bullets shot out towards the air-born faunus, but a quick tug of a vine meant that they all missed him. Turning to the last two of the group, Monkey-King shot two vines on either side of one of the suits and then used as much strength as needed, pulled himself towards the man with a double dropkick, flattening him into the ground. His other friend took several steps back from the force of the impact, and a little bit of dust flew up into the air from the strength that the hero had put into the finishing move. But he wasn't done yet, Monkey-King was certain he could chain together another finisher right now as he shot a vine to the floor and used it to pull him closer to punch the last suit around the face, turning his whole body from the force of the strike, he then shoot another vine and repeated the action still turning the man's body around, the last vine he shot brought him back to where he had started the strikes, creating a triangle around the man, and he ended it with a spinning roundhouse kick that sent the man spinning through the air, completely beaten and out for the count.

Looking around at the guys all strewn across the ground Sun let out a quiet sigh, 'Couldn't have been regular barmen or bouncers could you?' he thought sadly as these men had thrown their life away when they decided to work for Junior.

As his super senses 'kicked' him into action the hero stepped back to avoid the sidekick from the girl with the really high heels, Monkey-King was then forced on the defensive as he leaned back to avoid a deadly hook kick and then leapt over his opponent when she tried a front flip kick.

"Hey Mel, how are you doing? Love the hair, really brings out your eyes." Another kick, this time aimed at his crotch, safe to say he blocked it, but come on he was being honest.

"Where's your sister?" Head level this time, her flexibility never failed to impress him; he once saw her take down two guys at once while doing the splits.

"Not that I'm interested in her, you are without a doubt the pretty one." Ouch that one hurt, maybe don't rub your hair during a fight, I know it's my nervous thing to do but I am wearing a mask.

"So this is my attempt a flirting, I know it's kinda bad, but would you consider maybe dropping the attack and coming to the good side? There are plenty of benefits." Slide right between her legs, don't look up, and remember what May taught you about being a gentleman.

"No."

THWIP

Melanie was now attached to a pillar with a netting of vines around her body holding her in place and making sure she couldn't join in the fight, she was a skilled fighter after all.

"Yeah I guessed as much, but I have to try; got to believe in people you know? Well enjoy your time on the inside I hope you reflect on your choices and consider your options." Sun said sadly, he really didn't like sending people off to prison, he much preferred it when it was saving someone from a burning building or lifting a car off of someone, it made him feel like he was helping; all he was doing right now were ruining a person's life. In a way it is justice as they have made others' lives miserable, but there was still something deep in his core that said it wasn't completely right.

Leaving Melanie trapped and the rest of Juniors dwindling forces in the very capable hands of the police, Monkey-King decided to head deeper into the club to get to Junior as quick as possible; cut off the head of the snake as it were. Although Sun did know a couple of snake people that were really nice so he tried his best not to use that saying.

Running and leaping towards the DJ booth, Sun landed behind the DJ and gave him a small salute before turning to walk through the door behind him. At this point his senses went off and he ducked under a swing from the teddy bear DJ and then back-kicked him at the same time, pushing him into his booth and changing the song from some techno mess to a popular song that he recognized and liked.

 _Go where you need to_

 _Know I won't leave you_

 _I'll follow you like morning follows night_

"That's more my speed." Quipped Sun as he walked through the door, this put him on the catwalk overlooking a warehouse. Throughout the warehouse Monkey-King spotted several piles of drugs, all colour coded and no doubt sorted by size. Several racks filled with guns, rockets and grenades; perfect for waging war on just about anybody and everybody. Hordes of crates that were stocked with dust vials and crystals, no doubt stolen from the Schnee Dust Company and altered in some ways that could benefit Junior and his attack dogs. Lastly there were groups of Faunus that were strewn about the place with chains all on their feet and muzzles around their mouths, moving from station to station working as hard as they could to avoid a beating.

The hero was appalled at the conditions that his fellow species were forced to work in and made sure to take numerous photos to be provided as evidence to ensure that Junior was put away for a long, long time. Sneaking along the catwalk Monkey-King ended up behind one of the guards who was overlooking the proceedings going on below and swept his feet out from under him so he hit the ground hard and then tied him up in a vine holding him down on the ground. Looking over the edge of the railing, Monkey-King noticed that there was a suit just below him, smoking a cigarette and also completely isolated and alone; perfect for a stealth takedown. Perching on the edge of the railing, Sun shot down two vines which grabbed the suit by the shoulder and hauled him up to his level and punched him across the face knocking him out.

"You should really quit you know? Wait you're out cold, why am I still talking… I'm still doing it… okay stopping now."

Making his way further through the facility and taking out numerous members of Juniors gang along the way, Monkey-King managed to rescue several groups of Faunus that were locked in cages and also incapacitate several transport trucks that looked like they were going to be taking drugs and guns to different locations around the city. Eventually he made his way to the back door, which he knew from previous experience lead him up to the main man's office and the man of the hour himself.

Walking through and coming into his large waiting room, Monkey-King ran into several police officers that were gathered around in the middle of the room, their uniforms were ruffled up and had some burn marks and dust all over them, but the officers themselves appeared to be fine.

"Hey, how'd you guys get here?" asked the sceptical hero.

"Got turned around on our initial assault and luckily wound up in this room after taking a very long wrong turn." The leader explained; holding his assault rifle out in-front of him very relaxed manner. Too relaxed.

"Well I guess we can't count on any back up." Monkey-King said. "Looks like it's just us; mind if I lead? This has been a long time coming."

"After you." Gestured one of the officer's with a riot shield, and this prompted Monkey-King to walk through the middle of the group as they parted for him and head over to the door.

"Heads up boss, he's just outside." Whispered one of the other 'officers' into his radio and then aimed his gun at Monkey-King's back and opened fire. However Sun Wukong wasn't called a genius for nothing and had already had his suspicions about the luck of these cops, as the one guy said in that film he loved; ' _In my experience there is no such thing as luck._ ' To which Sun could agree with, he never had any luck.

The hero leapt backwards over the top of all the 'officers' and shot a vine towards one of their guns pulling it up with him. The moment that Monkey-King landed on the floor he swung the weapon around and threw it at great speed towards the man he had taken the gun from, smacking him across the face as hard as he could and knocking him out cold faster than anybody could react.

"Anyone want to 'cop' out?" Several bullets answered him.

"Yeah I heard it, note to self; think up better puns." Shooting a small blast of vine at the gunners face to blind him, Monkey-King slid under the bottom of one of the 'officers' riot shields and then flipped off the ground and then drop kicked the back of the 'officers' head sending him flying into the other 'officer' who was holding the riot shield knocking them both over. Seeing as they were both on the ground Monkey-King tied them up in a group of vines and then left them attached to the floor, this just left the other gunner blindly swinging his weapon around. A quick sweep of the legs and a couple of vine shots ensured that he was incapacitated, this meant that the final hurdle in-front of Junior was defeated and he was all his.

"Today is the da-" He was cut off very quickly by a sharp object that flew past his face as he stepped back when his senses alerted him to the danger. He then ducked underneath the swipe from a follow up sharper object, turning his back fully to where the person was attacking him from and instead choosing to run up the wall and flip over the top of his attacker putting a great amount of distance between them, this also meant that they were standing in the way of him and Junior, and they were not going to be stood there for long.

"Miltia, been a while, saw your sister downstairs, thought you would have stuck around with her."

Whereas her sister Melanie attacked with incredibly acrobatic and fluid kicks, Miltia was very much the opposite; she struck out with rapid and precise punches, however her fists were tipped with three very long and very sharp claws that made it a tad more deadly than usual.

Jab. Cross. Hook. Lunging punch. Uppercut.

"So I tried flirting with your sister." That was a very quick slash, good thing he had a very good grasp of her fighting style, four years will do that to a person.

"Please don't be mad, but I think she is really pretty, I love her smile." Stepping forwards and grabbing her wrist he pulled her off balance and then shoved her away from him, the further away from the spikes he was the better.

"I know she turned me down, but maybe you could talk to her, I have a lot of things going for me you know?" Oh a kick, haven't seen that from her in a couple of fights, really hurt my shin and she managed to cut me across the shoulder.

"My qualities are that I'm funny… Okay that's kind of it; and I actually suspect that more people are laughing at me, but at least I could keep her entertained." Good she was starting to slow down, the jabs and the cross' were coming in a fraction of a second slower than usual, this was going really wel- nope she's getting even faster now somehow.

"So any chance you could talk to her on my be-half." Maybe this could work, finally get a girlfriend, would be nice. All the people that know him often tell him that he is lonely; Jeff… uh Ria (Jeff's wife), his boss at the orphanage, okay that's everyone he knows, but they are the important people in his life.

"No."

THWIP

Sigh "Yeah I kind of thought that, sorry for bothering you."

Walking past the netted form of Miltia that was attached to the wall, Monkey-King made his to the door and took a deep breath, this was it. The moment that he had been waiting for, for nearly seven years since he had known about Junior and how he practically ran the underworld. This would be the biggest success in the eight years since he had first stepped out and started along this road.

At a very large and gorgeous marble desk sat a very large man, there was no mistaking that he had a presence in every room that he walked into, the sheer size of him making him stand out among the crowds of people. Right now even though he was sat down, Sun was barely taller than he was, although he currently wasn't on the floor in-front of him but hanging upside down from the ceiling in the middle of the office room watching Junior writing something down in his little book before putting it in a desk draw and placing both hands under his chin and gazing at the other side of his coin until it spoke.

"It's time to come in Hei, there is nowhere to run to, nowhere you can hide."

Taking a deep breath, Junior stood up and pushed his chair away from his desk. He then brought both of his hands down at lightning speed and destroyed the desk by splitting it in half and then throwing the two halves at the hanging hero. To avoid the marble, Monkey-King swung to the side of the first chunk and then bounced off of the second one while attaching two vines onto it and swinging it back around to strike Junior. This didn't go down to well as Junior had armed himself with his trusty club and destroyed the chunk of desk with a single swing of the club, turning it to dust.

"YOU WILL NEVER TAKE ME!" Junior screamed at Monkey-King as he lunged at him and brought his club slamming down towards where he was crouched, Monkey-King was quick enough to move out of the way and avoid the bone crushing strike that cracked the floor. He quickly pounced in and punched Junior across the face and then climbed onto his back and brought both of his fists hammering down on to the back of Junior's head several times as the club was stuck in the floor presenting the perfect opportunity to strike at his unprotected side.

Just as Junior wrenched the weapon free from the ground, Monkey-King back flipped off of his back and out of his reach when he tried to grab his leg. Swinging a small piece of rubble at Junior to distract him for a second, Monkey-King blasted his two vines out to the side of Junior and used them as a quick slingshot that pulled him closer at a high velocity towards the big man, drop kicking him with impressive speed and strength. This sent to two of them tumbling along the floor where they both crashed into one of the pillars in his office.

Feeling a hand grab around his throat, Sun found himself being lifted of the ground and then slammed into the pillar, cracking it and shaking the room with the force of the strike. Clearly all of that body weight on Junior was actually pure muscle. As he was being held against the pillar, Junior attempted to punch the hero, but he was too slow and Monkey-King managed to twist his whole body around in Juniors grasp when he bent back several of his fingers allowing him to be released from his hold and stand behind the villain who had his fist buried into the pillar. Several quick and strong strikes to his back proved to be ineffectual against the large man, and Sun realised that if he used his full strength there was a chance that he could do some serious permanent damage to Junior, especially if it was against his spine.

While he was mussing Junior whipped around and swung wildly out with his club, aiming right for Sun's head. It would have been a crushing blow if our hero hadn't had the foresight to duck right away, but it seemed like the swing was just a distraction as the next thing Monkey-King knew was that he was being tackled and taken across the room where they both crashed into the wall-

No THROUGH the wall.

They both somehow ended up in this interior boiler room, with Monkey-King pressed with his back up against a pipe and Junior bearing down on him. He lifted both of his hands up ready to bring them down in a hammer fist and crush him against the pipe, however that plan failed as the hero moved his body out of the way and allowed Junior to crush the pipe instead of himself. Roaring in anger at missing his target; Junior grabbed his leg when he tried to get away and threw he towards the opposite wall that they had just come through. This sent Sun sprawling through back into the area just outside of his office where he had fought the corrupt police officers and Miltia, at least he believed it to be the same area as they were all gone from before somehow.

"I WILL NOT LET SOME WITLESS FOOL END MY EMPIRE!" Junior yelled defiantly

"I'll have you know I have wit." Sun replied standing up on shaky legs and getting back into his fighting position.

"ARRRRHHHH." And with linguistic superiority, Junior charged at him yet again. This time Monkey-King was ready for him and flipped over the stampeding rhino while shooting a small blast of vine netting at his face to blind him causing him to crash into the wall and bounce off, turning to face where he believed his opponent to be, yet still blinded.

Sun sprang forward and bounced off his hands into a rising double kick to his chin, snapping his head back. Twisting as he came back down to the floor with his back partially to Junior, but still keeping him in the his line of sight out of the corner of his right eye, he performed a left spinning kick to the cheek, quickly followed by a nice right roundhouse kick and the moment his foot touched the floor, be brought it back around for a devastating hook kick on the blind man. Now with both of his feet on the floor, Sun jumped up and drop kicked Junior back into the wall and flipped away from him.

Ripping the netting away from his eyes, Junior charged forward and clothes-lined Monkey-King and then kept going for a little bit more and turned on his heel after coming to a skidding halt. Flipping back to his feet Monkey-king was then caught off guard again as Junior dived on top of him causing them to crash through the floor and land on one of the catwalks that Sun had managed to traverse earlier. Unfortunately it could not quite hold the weight of the two or the force in which they slammed into it, so they ended up breaking it and heading through to the factory floor where Monkey-king landed on a forklift truck, denting the roof and Junior landed in a pile of his drugs, causing his suit to take on a white tinge; to be honest it actually suited him a lot better than his black one did.

Relieved that Junior had found a soft landing, Sun Rolled off the top of the forklift truck with only a massive amount of discomfort and pain, Monkey-King swung a wooden crate around at the charging Junior; did he know any other attack or was it meant to be a pattern that he could exploit to beat him? Just like in a video game?

The wooden crate was quickly turned to splinters after shattering against Junior, but it served its main goal of distracting him long enough for Sun to swing around behind him and swing kick him in the back, forcing him to use his own momentum against himself and sent the both of them charging through another wall. And with the door right next to where the Junior shaped hole was!

This wall lead the two of them back into the middle of the nightclubs main room that the police had just managed to finally take over completely and round up the last of Juniors grunts that were still fighting against them so that they could then move on to the other areas of his establishment.

The two men of the hour came toppling over the edge of the railing of the DJ booth and towards the night club floor. Now Sun didn't particularly want to hit the floor for several reasons:

Number one; ouch

Number two; what a lame thing to have on your tombstone, assuming he could actually afford his own funeral.

Number three; he has heard the stories of what goes on in nightclubs and a bit of blood is probably one of the cleaner things that has gone on the floor.

Number four; he couldn't let Junior hit the floor, that's not who he was.

Shooting his vines in various different places and with expert precision and skill, Monkey-king had successfully managed to create a perfect net to catch the two of them before they splattered on the disco floor. Because of his heavier weight; Junior was the first to hit the net and so he sunk with it and then it sprung back up towards the falling hero who landed crouched on the criminals stomach, knocking the wind out of him as this surprise caught him completely off guard and unaware. They stayed there for a moment with the police all surrounding them and pointing their weapons at Junior before Monkey-King decided to break the absence of words between them.

"In all honesty I regret not going for the spider atheistic, but I was bitten by a monkey, so got to go with that angle."

* * *

As the police were marching Junior out of his club towards the armoured van, Monkey-King swung over and landed on top waiting for the man of the hour to make his way to his esteemed ride.

"Well Junior it's been a long ride, but that's everything I needed to do for the day all nicely wrapped up- Hey send me a postcard from the Emerald Forest, I hear it's lovely in spring."

"You Fuanus scum! The next tim-"

"Wow what a strange place to put a piano, I've got to go check that out, later Junior."

"FAUNUS!" Junior screamed after Sun as he jumped from the roof of the van and then disappeared around the corner already heading to his job at the orphanage.

Leaping over buildings and swinging past multiple different billboards Sun absentmindedly thought to himself about how Peter Patrick Percy Port could possibly make this seem like it was a bad thing to happen to the city now that Junior was behind bars and his criminal empire had completely fallen. The Monkey-King and the Vacuo police department had shown that nobody was outside of the law and nobody was untouchable. Even titans could be taken down if someone stood against them for what was right.

Landing on the roof of the orphanage Sun stripped out of his suit into a modest t-shirt and shorts combo, and then entered through the back door, greeting the janitor/owner Stan on the way in.

"Hey Stan, keeping the place together?" Sun asked cheerfully.

"Well I like to think that one man can make a difference." He replied with his trademark wisdom and smile, a twinkle in his eyes.

"Huh, Nuff said." Sun responded as he made his way to the mess room where most of the kids usually hung out, ready to relieve whoever was on duty at the moment.

Once Sun arrived in the room he was greeted by an unusual amount of silence from the kids, the cause for this was TV naturally. Right now it was the news playing over the defeat of Junior and how Monkey-King had played a massive part in his arrest. No doubt from this point on the newscasters would then have their usual debate whether or not Monkey-king was good for the city or if he was just a menace. Sun counted his blessings that the kids all loved him and thought he was a pretty cool hero.

"-No way, Iron Reaper is way cooler!"

Okay nine out of ten is still pretty good odds, you can't win everyone over.

"Dude have you seen the woman with the hammer? She is a goddess! She has to be the strongest hero ever."

I once stopped a train, so I think I know a thing or two about strength kiddo, but I'm still over half so I'll take it.

"If we're talking strongest heroes, then surely the blonde one is the strongest, she doesn't use any weapon, just her bare hands!"

Down to seven, that's fine… it's all fine.

"But Pyrrha Nikos though."

Goddamm it Barb, I knew you liked redheads better because you like MJ over me, but now Pyrrha Nikos too? I am hurt.

"Hey the guy with the bow and arrows is awesome; he fights with a BOW AND ARROW! Now that's brave."

OKAY TIME TO STOP.

"Monkey-King has a tail, I think it's a pretty easy choice for coolest." Sun declared as he walked into the room and took a seat on the arm of the sofa, ruffling Miles hair, he would need to get it cut soon, unless he wanted the afro.

"SUN!" Ah yes why everyone couldn't greet him like this when he walked into a room was a mystery, it would make him feel so much better if they did.

"Hello minions, I would ask if you are behaving yourselves but you are all terrible liars so there is no point."

Much protesting followed, as is custom with children, however it fell on deaf ears as Sun locked eyes with Peter and gave him a smile in greeting.

"Here to relieve me are you? Well I guess I'll see you tomorrow, same time, and same channel." With a big wave and several hugs and high fives Peter made his way out of the room and back to his stuff and then made his way back to his home.

This left Sun as the responsible adult in the building, well not completely; Stan was still around somewhere. Sun's shift at the orphanage was relatively easy, after a healthy debate on who the coolest superhero was (with nobody knowing who Captain Vale was until Stan gave them all a quick history lesson, even then nobody really chose him) the kids were then tasked with some gardening and harvesting of fruit and vegetables from the garden. The orphanage grew their own food and supplied it to the church across from them, which also helped with the funding to keep the building going and make sure that the kids, had a home and a place to sleep.

Speaking of a place to sleep, it was getting very late and it was almost time for Sun to start heading off, Stan was the only person who stayed on site and lived full time with the kids. This was his universe as he liked to call it. So once all of the kids had brushed their teeth, gone to the toilet and tucked themselves in, Sun went around and said goodnight to each of them individually, making sure to use the personalised handshake with each of them. Once he was satisfied he also said goodnight to Stan and was about to head out the door when he heard his name called out.

"We have a spare room; you don't need to go back there."

Sun tensed up, how did he know? Had he followed him back there one day? No that was unlikely; nobody could keep up with him, let alone a sixty-five year old man.

"It's okay Stan, that's for the kids. I don't want to take anything from them."

"Think of it as giving you something you deserve." Damm him and his wisdom, did that just happen when you got to a certain age? After a long pause between them, Sun smiled sadly and waved half-heartedly back at the man.

"Goodnight Stan."

"Goodnight… kid."

Once Sun was sure he was away from prying eyes, he leapt up into the air as high as he could and easily reached the roof of the orphanage, making sure to grab his bag with his suit and other clothes in. Fitting on his vine launchers he strapped the bag to his back and then put his mask on, the optics adjusted perfectly and coupled with his night vision from being a faunus, Sun had no problem navigating his way back to his space.

Right underneath the bridge just south of the orphanage by three miles, Sun crawls upside down along the underside of tarmac until he reaches a little alcove where his makeshift hammock and furniture are placed.

"Home sweet home." Sun says sadly as he lies on the hammock, the cool sea breeze and the gentle rumble of the bridge will soon send him of into a deep sleep before he is woken up at six forty-five every morning by the same ship passing under the bridge delivering more tourists into the city. As he is lying there Sun takes a minute to think about how he ended up in this position; when his aunt died, she left him very little money, the apartment that he was living in had already said they would be evicting him the day after the funeral and Junior had just launched a new drug on the streets that turned people into strong men for a minute, before leaving them very weak and almost catatonic for three weeks.

All in all it was a very hectic week, so there had been very little sleep throughout that series of events, which lead to Sun stumbling across this little section of (in his opinion) heaven. He had just stopped his twelfth strong man gang of the evening and was extremely tired, he hadn't even had a chance to cry at aunt May's funeral before he had to leave and save people from a burning building three blocks over. So when he found this place he quickly created a hammock and cried his eyes out and slept his first night in his new home.

The place very quickly grew on him, it wasn't too hot as it was kept out of the sun all the time, yet it never got cold, because the bridges lights ran on fire dust which was about as rare as a snow in Atlas, so he still kept toasty warm because of the cables that ran under the bridge. The cars were never loud enough to disturb him in his sleep, but they provided a gentle noise to send him off into the land of dreams. Truth be told, this was a safe and special place for Sun, and he didn't want to give it up just yet, it was one of the few things he had left in his life that held him together.

And with that, our hero fell asleep.

* * *

Bright and early the next morning Sun is swinging out from underneath the bridge and making his way downtown to the orphanage to start his shift; if you had the afternoon shift before then you also had the following morning. This was rotated between himself, Peter and MJ as they were the only three people that worked full time with the kids.

Spotting the construction signs at the end of the bridge, Sun smiled as he flipped and dove between the cranes and the workmen dangling from wires as they performed their maintenance on the bridges support columns. Several of them waved back in greeting as he flew past them, and he returned the greeting with a wave to each of them and calling out their names as he went by. These construction guys usually worked on several buildings around the kingdom and Sun had once or twice gotten lost quite easily when he was starting out and asked the only other people that were around at his height to point him in the right direction, thus he had learned their names and made a couple of connections with the guys in the company.

Making his way off the bridge, he turned down the usual path that contained all of the small business that he had frequently stopped Juniors thugs from robbing and collecting tribute from. The more he showed his face around those parts and spoke to the owners the less likely that Junior was to send people over to extort money and favours from them in the future. Now though since his incarceration it seemed if his extortion division of minions had stopped what they were doing as it was roughly the time for the best Mistral style restaurant in Vacuo to be collected from. However instead of being closed, it was actually bustling with people with and the owner was waving Sun down and calling his name. Hanging upside down from the streetlight; Sun shook the hand of the owner in greeting.

"Hey boss, what gives? I'm usually tying up a bunch of shady looking guys and leaving with some noodles about now. No chance of that today though, the lines are huge!" Monkey-King exclaimed.

"All because of you. When you took down Junior, it all stopped." Salvador said excitedly, he had long gotten over his shock from seeing Monkey-king hang from random places and swing through the kingdom.

"Well the police took him in, I just helped out a bit, couldn't miss out on that rematch." Monkey-King responded honestly, as the police did take him in.

"Either way, you don't have to pay for noodles when you come here; you helped me, let me help you."

"Thanks, well that's breakfast sorted for me for the next forever, I wonder if the Vale pizza place on eighth will let me have lunch there?" Monkey-King mused as he swung away from the noodle shop after grabbing a quick bite to eat from the owner. It was then that he noticed a large plume of smoke rising from a couple of blocks over, he concluded that this must be because a building was on fire, and that meant people could be in danger.

"The fun never stops." Sun said as he vaulted over a building to cut across and get to the smoke as fast as possible.

Landing on the opposite building Sun paused for a moment to quickly plan… out… what… to- where were the sirens? The response time of fire and rescue was impeccable, sometimes even quicker than he was. Also the smoke didn't smell, there was no heat coming from the building whatsoever and the pedestrians walking around didn't even bother looking up at the smoke or stop to acknowledge that there was a building on fire. Sun even spotted one man hold the door open for another family as they entered the building, with two of the men having a conversation outside the door with the smoke still billowing in their faces.

If there was no danger, then why were his senses in overdrive right now?

Good news and bad news; good news he got his answer, bad news; he got his answer.

A quick moving and small object struck the ledge that he was perched right upon and began to tick quietly, however due to the intensity of his super senses going into overdrive; he only registered it at the last minute. Leaping away from the ledge, the device exploded in a small compact explosion sending rubble flying towards the ground, where multiple people started to scream and run away from the falling concrete, and at Monkey-King's back, fortunately he managed to twist in mid-air and avoid the debris. He was not so fortunate to avoid the over incoming projectile that flew through the air and struck him right in the stomach knocking the wind from him and torpedoing him towards the edge of the building where he almost rolled off.

The entire thing happened way too fast for him to react to, but he could still sense what was going on around him. The flying object was now hovering near the far edge of the roof, opposite from where he was lying down trying to get his breath back. Taking a deep breath and flipping back up onto his feet, Monkey-King spun around to face his adversary and give him a piece of his mind. That was cut short however as two bladed objects flew from the flying threat forcing Monkey-King to jump into the air, doing the splits and also ducking at the same time, this proved to be a distracting move as he was then clotheslined from behind, as the flying threat had moved when the blades had been shot at him and flanked him.

Sliding across the floor face first and feeling several bruises start to form, as well as many cuts both on him and his suit. Shaking his head and acknowledging that he was in danger so his super senses would stop hurting his head; Sun took a moment on the floor and focused on the UFO that had knocked him down twice now. He managed to hear a sound similar to what jet engine emit, although slightly more subdued, most likely due to the size of the air craft. Noticing it wasn't moving around anymore and had lowered to almost touching the floor, Monkey-King assumed this was the part where they trade subtle insults between each other and hope to hurt feelings.

Picking himself up of the floor slowly, Sun finally got a good look at his assailant; the man's skin had a green hue, with pointy ears and bright yellow eyes, already this made the man look like a goblin of some kind. The long black pony tail was braided and was flailing about in the slight breeze that came across the rooftop and also from the engine from the flying glider. He was wearing bright white clothing, much like Monkey-Kings own suit, except the chest piece was slightly exposed showing multiple scars across the chest, indicating that something terrible must have happened to this man. He had a purple bag at his hip with the strap going across his chest also being bright purple. Lastly he also had a scorpion tail, not a normal scorpion tail like several faunus had, or even a tail in the sense like Sun did. No this guy had a mechanical tail that no doubt had been grafted on to his body, the tip of the tail oozed out purple liquid; no doubt that was highly poisonous.

"Colour co-ordination kinda went out the window didn't it?" Sun asks, he's not really expecting an answer if he is being honest, but we don't know anything unless we give it a go.

"HAHAHAHA HO HOHO HEH HA HEHEHE." Crackled the Green man as he doubled over and placed his hands on his knees, eventually he just started wheezing and then he straightened up with a mad grin on his face as he eyed Monkey-King.

"He told me that you liked your jokes-"

"-well ones giving me a headache right now." Sun interrupted

"-So if nothing else, this is going to be funny." The green man finished saying with a wide toothy grin. It was like looking in to the eyes of a shark, the teeth weren't helping with that description.

"Well I do like to include a certain amount of quippage in my fights, it is what they people pay for after all Mr… Uh what do you call yourself?"

"TYRIAN my good friend, and I believe that is enough conversation for the moment don't you?"

"Wait, wait, wait; you just call yourself Tyrian? No supervil-" True to his word Tyrian didn't let the conversation continue and lunged off his glider straight at Sun and wrapped both hands around his throat, taking him to the floor of the roof and cracking the ground from the force and speed of his movement.

Momentarily stunned, Monkey-King relied on pure instinct and trust on his super senses, and moved his head to the left. Narrowly avoiding the very hard punch that broke the section of the roof that they were lying on, causing both of them to fall through the roof and into the apartment building below. Flipping to his feet and spinning around to face the mad man, Sun ducks a wild hook punch and returns a strong uppercut of his own. Even jumping off the floor to give him more power behind the strike, and while mid-air he spun around and tried a heel kick to the jaw. However Tyrian was not fazed by the punch as most people would have been, and grabbed the back of Sun's leg and swung him around and slammed him into the wall.

When Sun collapsed to the ground, Tyrian still had a hold of his leg and threw him out of the window, the numerous glass shards cutting through his already damaged sit and also drawing some blood and causing several minor injuries across his body. As he fell through the air he shot out a vine and pulled himself to the side in mid-air while somersaulting to avoid the glider flying full speed at him with knifes primed straight to skewer him like a prime rib, instead of stabbing him it flew right into the opposite building.

Steadying himself on a streetlight, Sun looked up at his enemy who was crouching by the broken window and grinning at him. Just as he pounced at Sun with his tail ready to stab him, Sun catapulted himself by shooting vines out to slingshot forward with greater speed and dropkick Tyrian back up through the ceiling. Monkey-King then grappled with Tyrian and threw him back down onto the roof, making another crack appear across the surface. After he had bounced back to his feet, Sun then vine zipped towards Tyrian and punched him downwards across the face, since the strike was so hard it caused Tyrian to turn around violently, however he turned this into a wild swing with his mechanised tail and backhanded Sun across the roof and into the slightly raised concrete at the edge of the roof.

When Monkey-King hit the edge it cracked the building work and sent several bricks down to the people gathered bellow. Quickly recovering and shooting down a net to catch the bricks before they hit anybody, Sun came to the conclusion that maybe he should move the fight away to a less populated area, somewhere he knew well and where he had the advantage. The bridge would do, it gave him room to move around and attack from multiple different angles and it was most defiantly a home field advantage.

"HEHEHE, my tail is better than yours!" Tyrian giggled with joy.

"Compensating much?" Monkey-King retorted

"There's the wit that he told me about!"

"Well it's all I got, so you can bet you're going to see a lot of it."

And with that last exclamation of sadness, Sun rolled of the edge of the building and vine-zipped across the street and yelled out as loud as he could.

"FOLLOW THE LEADER, LEADER, FOLLOW THE LEADER, LEADER, AND FOLLOW THE LEADER, LEAD!"

As he was swinging towards the bridge his super senses picked up on several smaller objects flying towards him at high speeds, twisting his body to a more horizontal angle the first bladed grenade flew past him, and he shot a small vine blast and caused it to explode. As Monkey-King kept swinging along he shot out more and more vine blasts to keep ahead of the exploding blades and to destroy them before they impacted the buildings. He knew that Tyrian was following him, because who wouldn't after the sing along, and because he could still hear the laughter after him every time he had to dodged a bladed grenade.

The moment that Monkey-King had arrived at the bridge he swung onto one of the supporting wires and stood on the side of it and waited for Tyrian. When he caught up to him, he hovered in-front of the hero and crouched down on his glider.

"Well, well, well, nowhere left to run."

"I wasn't running, I was leading."

Then the fight resumed, Sun launched himself at Tyrian and caught him in mid-air with the two of them wrestling on the glider. Because of this Tyrian couldn't quite control it to the best of his insane ability and ended up crashing into several different supporting wires, concrete pillars and scaffolding from the construction workers that had been performing maintenance and creating new parts of the bridge. Right now on the glider Sun had his feet on Tyrians chest and was using his adhesive abilities (personally he called them stick-um-powers) to cling to him and allow his hands to remain free to punch him multiple times around the face.

Swing after swing landed on the mad man's laughing face and Sun felt satisfied after every successful blow that landed, however it was never going to last for too long as Tyrian caught on to the pattern quickly and during Sun's sixth swing Tryian bobbed his head out of the way and then reached up with his left hand and wrapped it around the heroes throat and began to squeeze, while simultaneously striking with his right to the ribs and then the head. This allowed him to get some control back over the glider and fly it down into one of the construction vans, moulding him into the metal work and then kicking him in deeper for good measure.

In retaliation Sun ripped off the vans door and smacked Tyrian around the face with it as hard as he could, and just like a baseball he flew backwards and into a cement mixer. Unfortunately he didn't quite get stuck in it how Sun wanted him to as that would have been hilarious, but he did get a lot of powder on him from the cement packets that were around it. As Sun fell to his knees after the brutal attack, he took a very deep breath.

"No man can win every battle, but I'll be dammed if I fall without a struggle." He muttered to himself as his back screamed at him, ready for him to fall down and accept defeat.

The cement mixer flew towards him and he rolled over the top and back flipped over the throwing knife only to get tackled in mid-air by Tryian on the glider and slammed into the concrete pillar. Sun then brought both legs up and kicked him hard in the chest to give him some space and when he flew at him again he crawled up the wall and let him stab the blades of the glider into the pillar, holding him there for a moment, but a moment was all that he needed as he spun around to heel kick Tyrian around the face and then push off the wall to slingshot himself into his back, creating cracks in the pillar.

Swinging away from the Tryian shaped hole in the wall, Sun perched on a wire and readied himself for the inevitable retaliation. His suit was torn up; he was bleeding, had several suspected fractures and most importantly he was tired. Nobody so far had ever forced him to use this much strength before, he knew that if he hit anybody else; even junior, with the strength that he was hitting Tyrian right now he would kill them. But this guy was taking the hits like it was nothing, Sun wasn't sure how much he had left, but he wasn't going to give up, because that's not what heroes do.

As Tyrian pried himself away from the wall and turned to face Sun, he finally saw some blood trickling from the corner of his mouth. Sun breathed a little easier at that, maybe this force of nature could actually fall after all. Swinging towards him to strike him again, Tyrian flew out of the way and closer to the ground where Sun then flowed after him, this turned out to be exactly what he wanted as his tail then shot a blast of purple poison at his vine interrupting his swing and causing him to slow down for a second, leaving him vulnerable and allowing Tyrian to swing his tail at Sun and send him crashing into another van, he really hoped the insurance on these things were great because he could not afford to pay for two vans to be replaced. Tyrian then hopped off of his glider and lifted up the van up high above his head, showcasing his strength, he then threw it over the edge of the bridge and down towards the water.

"Itsy, bitsy Monkey." Tyrian sang as he watched the van plummet to the sea bellow.

While Tyrian was gleefully staring down at the water, one of the construction workers who had taken shelter when the two super powered beings had entered the bridge, grabbed a large wrench, because a sledge hammer was nowhere to be found, and charged up behind Tyrian and swung the wrench at his head in a valiant attempt to knock him down for good. That plan failed extraordinarily as Tyrian caught the swing without even looking and then stabbed the worker in the stomach with his tail, no point in using poison or even turning to look at him, he wasn't worth the effort or the privilege of being noticed.

"Anthony!" one of his fellow workers cried out and then ran forward to get him out of the reach of the monster. Tryian swept the man's feet out from underneath him and stood crackling over him prepared to strike him down as well.

At this moment when Sun was falling through the air towards the sea he subconsciously thought of everyone who had ever put him down.

"You're nothing!"

"Nobody loves you!"

"You're a freak!"

"You can't save anyone!"

"You're a useless disappointment!"

"EVERYONE HATES YOU!"

As he got closer and closer to the sea in the van Sun felt all of these words come crashing down upon him, and then he felt one more.

May

"Sun, it's time to get up."

And just like that he burst out of the van and shot up, back towards the bridge, and that's when he noticed Tyrian standing over two of the construction workers, one of whom was bleeding quite heavily, so Sun swung the entire underneath of the bridge and then used that as a trebuchet to launch himself at Tyrian with a powerful drop kick sending him flying across the bridge and tumbling into a pile of scaffolding, knocking it down on top of him and trapping him underneath.

"Go get out of here!" Sun shouted at the workers, he was still bruised, still battered, still bleeding, but he was most certainly not beaten and he wouldn't be for as long as he could draw a breath.

Tryian shoved a load of the collapsed scaffolding off of him and then stood on shaky feet, as he ran his hands over his face and then burst out laughing loudly, before exclaiming loudly.

"Well isn't that interesting? You actually do defend the little people? I always assumed that you did it for the cameras, but you're actually a good person aren't you?"

"I do my best, you should try it. Never too late to change paths."

"Aww you don't see it yet do you? No matter what you do for them, eventually they will hate you."

"Well someone has to do something for them."

Tryian sighed, and then leaned back and kept laughing, shaking his pony-tail with mad joy.

"Here is the real truth monkey-boy, the people in this pathetic city all live for one purpose, lifting the few exceptional people onto their shoulders. You and me… we're exceptional. So why not let them?"

"That's not right."

"HAHAHA HEHE HOOO HAHE, AND YOU ACTUALLY BELIEVE IT! THAT'S THE BEST PART!" Tyrian roared as he doubled over. As he was mid-way through his evil laughing fit Sun flying kicked him across the face with a beautiful right side kick, which was then followed through left spin kick where his heel struck Tyrian across the face, this gave him opportunity to perform a right jumping round house kick across the same side of his face, this managed to knock over Tryian, but he must have called his glider to him as Sun had to back flip over the deadly UFO and its many knifes protruding from its front. Sun then blasted the glider with several vine nets and managed to get it stuck to the pillar where it had impact after he had dodged it, now Tyrian was grounded and had no means of movement or surprise attacks.

"Is that all you got?" Tyrian croaked as he stood back to his feet.

"Not done yet." Sun panted as he hunched over slightly, the two then ran at each other and brutally punched each other as hard as they could for a long time, eventually the sun began to set and the news helicopters that were circling them had to switch on the lights to keep track of them, They were also moving at quite high speeds and with surprising agility. Well Monkey-King's agility wasn't that surprising as many people had seen him perform numerous different acrobatic feats over the years, however Sun was amazed that Tyrian was able to stay almost as agile as he was, he presumed it had to do with the enhanced strength and speed that he had gained, he must have also been exposed to something extra ordinary, maybe a goblin?

WHAM

Sun skidded across the bridge and hit an upturned car but quickly moved to the side as the mechanical tail stabbed exactly where he was lying, but he wrapped his hand around the tail and pulled Tryian in close and punched him with a sharp right hook. As they rolled together Sun shot a vine up to a metal girder dangling from a crane and pulled it down, when he caught it he used it as a baseball bat and smacked Tryian down to the ground, he then dropped it on top of him and jumped on top while shooting some vine netting to keep it pinned on top of the criminal. He then punched him around the face several times, but Tryian kept laughing after every strike.

"Is... that… all… you… got?" Tyrian asked between shaky and breathily laughs.

Sun raised his fist again to strike him, but stopped; this wasn't what should happen, he won but he should win like this; it wasn't right.

"It's all you deserve; I'm nothing like you." Sun didn't know exactly where this anger had come from and why it was all being aimed at Tyrian. Maybe it was because he was just so opposite to him, so strange and out of the blue to what he usually dealt with. With Junior there was a code; he didn't do anything that involved kids and he never tortured anybody. Tryian on the other hand had no code; he didn't care about anyone or anything at all, there was also the added fact of him also having super powers and other extra ordinary abilities and advanced equipment, nobody that Monkey-King had faced in his crime fighting career had ever been anywhere near as strong as he was, but Tryian matched him blow for blow. While there abilities were similar in nature, they could not be further apart as he was the exact opposite of Sun as he cared about everyone, even the bad guys he made sure to not harm to greatly and always try to talk them out of their situations; to appeal to the good in them.

Sun shook his head, he didn't hate Tyrian; he pitied him. He wondered what bad day had happened to drive this man down the road of madness and pain, and he hoped that it would never happen to him or to anybody else, because looking at the result of all that pain in one person was hurting him. Maybe there was a chance that he could appeal to the good in Tyrian and save him.

"Come… on… boy." Tyrian huffed "You know there's only one way to beat me… you know you want to…"

"Not you, not anybody, not ever."

"Oh climb down off that high horse, you're a freak like yours truly, and at the end of the day everyone here is just waiting to watch you fail, and then there're gonna eat you alive… and me? I'll be right there ready to help you out…"

Sun stood above Tyrian as the police officers all swarmed in and aimed their guns at his pinned body, completely surrounding him.

"When that day comes, I'll be sure to pinch you."

Tyrian looked confused for a second, but then he got it and started to chuckle quietly, then he started to laugh and then that turned into a full blown fit where his entire body was shaking, but he still managed to shout out the punch line.

"BECAUSE I'LL BE DREAMMING HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA." Sun allowed himself a small smile, it was actually quite funny. Shooting vine netting around Tyrian's body and legs, Sun lifted the metal beam off his body and placed it down on the ground. Tyrian made no moves to flee or fight as he was bound and he made no effort to escape his imprisonment of vines either, in-fact he seemed quite comfortable being taken away by the police officers and thrown into one of their vans, but he still had one last thing to say out of the cliché villain hand book.

"Be seeing you soon… Monkey-King."

Glancing around at all the destruction and all of the people looking at him, Sun knew what was going to come next, people were going to start blaming him and asking the police to arrest him and several officers looked like they would do just that in a second, so Sun did the smart thing and leapt into the air and swung off of the bridge, he knew that that would probably make him look even worse, but if he stuck around to help right now then he would be dodging police attempting to arrest him, reporters and the BEACON agents that he had seen closing in on him. Best for him to come back later and then help lift the heavy things and try to set everything back to where it had been before Tyrian and he had turned it into a warzone.

Sitting on a building overlooking the bridge, Sun hung his legs off the ledge and finally started to acknowledge all of the injuries that he had sustained during the fight. No doubt it would be problematic to walk for a while after today, and possibly eat as well if his bruised ribs and stomach were anything to go by.

"Hey Ozzy, been awhile. How's the wife and kids? Still looking forward to the game next week? The Sand Surfers are going to smoke Vale West Side, so you can kiss that trophy goodbye."

This remark was met with silence as usual; maybe Ozpin was just trying to deny that Monkey-King had even sensed his presence.

"Heard you five rooftops over, how's your ankle after jumping that last gap?"

"Nothing a light stretch couldn't solve. And my wife is fine, Maria always has been every time you ask about her, my daughter on the other hand is another problem, she keeps asking to meet you every day."

"My fame precedes me it seems."

"She wants to know if you'll introduce her to Iron Reaper."

"As if I'm cool enough to meet Iron Reaper." Sun mutters, but at least he got his answer. Ozpin never talks about his family in the presence of others or if he knows that anybody is listening, so they must be the only two people that know this conversation is going on.

"You know, as it goes on it often gets harder to do things alone, especially if the bad guys fight smarter and harder as time passes."

Sun thinks about it for a moment, Ozpin isn't entirely wrong as per usual, but he's still not completely right at the same time. "He's not a bad guy, he just needs help."

Ozpin hums in response and then comes and sits on the side of the building overlooking the bridge, tapping his cane against the ledge every so often, not in a pattern which is slightly irritating to Sun as he could have sworn he knew that tune from somewhere.

"I'm not joining BEACON, I belong out here in the streets looking after the little guy, and in a big group like that, you tend to forget all about the little guy."

"Haha, I heard something similar from someone else a little while ago, but alas I didn't come to ask about BEACON, and I no longer want you to join them, I think I have another group in mind, one where you can truly benefit from joining, and from what I have witnessed they care a lot about the little guy. The Hunters have been active for about a month now, and so far they have achieved a great deal of positive press; clearing up crime around and in Vale, STRQ industires has made significant strides towards a cleaner energy source as a result of increased sponsors, and they have also helped out with the earthquake in Mistral and the rebuilding and redevelopment of the area. However despite all of their combined efforts, they still need help at certain points, and right now they need your help."

"So what, you want me to teach them how to be better heroes? Me teach the smartest woman on the plant, a real life goddess, a chick who could bench this building in her sleep, a super spy and a history legend?"

"Well… not quite."

"…"

"I believe that this will be useful for everybody Mr Wukong, you can help save people and also assist the greatest team of heroes ever assembled, and they can become your friends, something I am certain you need."

"I've already got three friends, I don't know if I could handle more." Sun said as he thought about them and made a list in his mind; Stan, Officer Davis and Ozpin.

"They have money and a bed."

"Alright I'll see what they are selling. No promises that it will work but I'll give it my best shot."

"Fantastic, currently they are being attacked by a person with great strength, but I'm sure you will be able to help them before it is too late."

"Do I get a ride?"

* * *

Another arrow hit its mark as Ren soared above Jaune and rolled upon landing, the two then dived out of the way of a flying car and Jaune then raised his shield to block the swing of a telephone pole that sent him flying down the street into a wedding dress shop.

Shaking his head and once again praising whatever craftsman made his shied, he struggled up and charged back to where the explosions were coming from, so long as he heard them then he knew that Ren was still standing and still fighting. With the two of them being the most vulnerable of the team they had made sure to keep their distance at first and tried to run interference and focus on getting people far away from the threat and let Yang and Ruby fight instead, however Ruby had to leave halfway through because she went back to go and go upgrade her amour, so she had left for the STRQ mansion to build something better to fight.

That was two hours ago and Jaune was running close to his last legs, he could only imagine how tired Ren must be feeling right now what with all the jumping and running he has had to do all day to avoid being hit, because one hit would put him out of the fight for good.

Yang was still up but she was currently holding up a building from collapsing while everyone else was escaping it, which was why Jaune had to get back to the fight as fast as possible. The building was in-fact a BEACON building built here in Mistral and the beast had seemed hell bent on bringing it down until Ren had started shooting his trick arrows to annoy him, and then launched himself at him. They were now thirteen blocks away from where they had started and the monster showed no signs of slowing down. This was why Jaune needed to get back as fast as possible; if he could take its attention off Ren then maybe it would forget about the BEACON building, because if it went there right now it would kill everyone that was still trying to get out.

Hopefully Yang could hold that building long enough for everyone to get out because they really needed their heavy hitter right now, she was the only person of the four teammates that actually did any damage to the beast before it knocked her through the buildings foundations and turned its attention to Ren. Taking stock of his allies, Jaune realised several things:

Ruby was back in Vale

Yang was occupied

Nora was off world

Pyrrha hadn't been seen in two weeks

And the cat woman hadn't come back after the little stunt in the graveyard

They needed help, and they needed help fast… Because they couldn't last much longer.

* * *

Sorry, been a while, Hit writers block.

This chapter took awhile because I didn't want it to be an exact copy, Sun still needed his own charm, but thats hard to do when they are quite literally the same person.

Side note, Spider-Man PS4 is one of the best games Ive ever played, if you havent I suggest giving it a play.

Little hint for the next chapter which is in the works, I have mapped out how I want this all to go don't worry about that I just need to write the bullet points, check it makes sense and then put that into a comprehensive story. That is grammatically correct and also makes sense with what I have already said.

Enjoy, and hope you all have a good rest of the year and a good year for 2020.


End file.
